Since December 2012 and until his retirement in July 2025, Mr. Plavin was a Senior Managing Director of the Blackstone Group. Most recently, he oversaw Blackstone s commercial real estate lending and debt investing activities in Europe. Previously, from when he joined Blackstone until June 2021, Mr. Plavin was the Chief Executive Officer and a Director of Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. (NYSE:BXMT), an NYSE- listed commercial mortgage REIT that is managed by Blackstone. Prior to joining Blackstone, Mr. Plavin served as CEO of Capital Trust, Inc. (NYSE:CT) (predecessor of Blackstone Mortgage Trust), since 2009. From 1998 until 2009, Mr. Plavin was Chief Operating Officer of Capital Trust and was responsible for all of the lending, investing and portfolio management activities of Capital Trust, Inc. Prior to that time, Mr. Plavin was employed for 14 years with Chase Manhattan Bank and its securities affiliate, Chase Securities Inc. Mr. Plavin held various positions within the real estate finance unit of Chase, and its predecessor, Chemical Bank, and in 1997 he became co-head of global real estate for Chase. As of October 2025, Mr. Plavin was appointed to and serves as the Non-Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of Cushman & Wakefield, Inc. (NYSE:CWK). Mr. Plavin was also the Chairman of the Board of Directors of WCI Communities, Inc. (NYSE:WCIC), a publicly-held developer of residential communities from August 2009 until it was purchased by Lennar Corporation (NYSE:LEN and LEN.B) in February 2017.