William F. Hipp

Mr. Hipp spent over 35 years in commercial banking, where he developed extensive experience with real estate investment trusts (REITs), real estate capital markets, and corporate finance. From 2004 until his retirement in 2015, Mr. Hipp was employed by KeyBank in various senior-level roles, most recently as head of the Institutional Capital Group (ICG) for KeyBank's real estate business, which he founded upon joining the bank and ran until his retirement. ICG's mission is to identify real estate-related borrowers, particularly public and private REITs and real estate opportunity funds with effective debt ratings ranging from high yield to mid investment grade, that have a significant need for bank debt and M&A advisory services, and for access to the syndicated loan market, the public equity markets, and the commercial mortgage-backed securities and agency debt markets (Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac). Through the ICG platform, KeyBank provided debt and equity capital and advisory services to real estate-related borrowers; and Mr. Hipp, in his capacity as head of ICG, was responsible for formulating and implementing strategy and for client selection and initial credit and risk decisions. Prior to his employment with KeyBank, Mr. Hipp spent 20 years with BankBoston, as head of its real estate group, and FleetBoston (following the merger of BankBoston and Fleet Financial Group) as co-head of real estate. Mr. Hipp holds a B.A. degree in Economics from Emory University and an M.B.A with a concentration in Finance and Accounting from Tulane University.