Michelle M. MacKay joins Cushman & Wakefield board of directors

The board of directors of Cushman & Wakefield announced the recent appointment of Michelle M. MacKay as an independent member. MacKay was most recently a senior advisor to iStar, an adaptive investment REIT that finances, invests in and develops real estate and real estate-related projects.

“Michelle is an accomplished leader in real estate finance. Her years of experience and her understanding of our business will prove valuable to the board and to the firm,” said Brett White, executive chairman and CEO of Cushman & Wakefield.

During her 15-year career at iStar, MacKay served as executive vice president of investments, and was one of the key contributors to the growth of iStar from a $6 billion to a $16 billion corporation. She also held roles as head of capital markets and head of corporate and liquid securities. Prior to iStar, MacKay came from UBS, where she was an executive director in commercial real estate and a senior member of the commercial real estate investment committee. She originated and closed over $1 billion of first mortgage and mezzanine real estate transactions while at UBS. MacKay was also responsible for mezzanine structuring and distribution.

From 1996 to 1998, MacKay was vice president at Chase Bank where she was part of a two-person team hired to establish the commercial mortgage-backed securities trading desk and real estate products distribution. Prior to Chase, MacKay created and managed a $1.8 billion portfolio of real estate investments at The Hartford Insurance Company in their investment arm, HIMCO. Her responsibilities included analyzing and investing in CMBS, CMBS IO, unsecured REIT debt, FNMA multifamily, credit tenant lease structures and high-yield real estate companies. MacKay holds an MBA from the University of Hartford and a bachelor of arts from the University of Connecticut.