Presentation of the 2020 Cornell Industry Leader Award

Kirk A. Sykes currently serves on the following boards; The Natixis Loomis Sayles Funds Board of Trustees; The Eastern Bank Board of Trustees & Risk Management Committee; The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston External Diversity Advisory Board; Real Estate Executive Council (Chairman); The City of Boston’s Civic Design Commission; The Urban Land Institute’s New England Advisory Board; and Cornell University’s Baker Program in Real Estate Advisory Board and as Chairman of Real Estate Executive Council.

Previously, Mr. Sykes served on the following Boards: Ares Commercial Real Estate (NYSE: ACRE) Board of Directors and Compensation Committee; The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Board, 2008-2014 (Chairman 2012-2014, Audit Committee, Business Practices Committee); Capital Crossing Bank Preferred REIT Board of Directors (acquired by Lehman Brothers Bank), 2004-2009; BankBoston & Fleet Community Bank Board of Directors, 1994-2004; and ICON Architects Board of Directors, 2004-2006. Mr. Sykes also served on the Board of Overseers for Beth Israel Hospital, Children’s Hospital, Boston University Medical Center, and Brigham & Women’s Hospital Osher Center.

Mr. Sykes is President of Primary Corporation and Investments, a Boston-based real estate investment and development company. Primary executes large-scale public and private real estate projects with a goal of financial and socially responsible investing success.

Previously, Mr. Sykes was the head of an urban investment, development, and redevelopment commercial real estate equity fund for select institutional investors called Urban Strategy America Fund, L.P. The Fund was a true “triple bottom-line fund” focusing on investment returns, economic development, and environmental sustainability. Mr. Sykes is responsible for the supervision of the partnership equity placement, the identification of investments, and the day-to-day business operations of the USA Fund.

Mr. Sykes combines his professional training and hands-on experience in the areas of finance, investment, development, design, and construction to create customized responses to the complex issues of urban real estate development. His approach is grounded in the bottom-line-driven perspective gained during his tenure as Chairman of The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston as well as other roles including Fleet Bank and BankBoston’s Community Bank Advisory Boards and various other for-profit and nonprofit board affiliations. Mr. Sykes acts as an Advisor to Basis Investment Group, a commercial real estate debt investment platform, where he provides strategic guidance and input on mezzanine debt and preferred equity investments in connection with construction loans.

Mr. Sykes has been a speaker at Harvard University Business School and Kennedy School of Government; University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business; MIT Sloan School of Management and Center for Real Estate; Cornell University Real Estate Program; and The League of Historical Cities of the World Conferences in Japan, Turkey, and Australia.

Mr. Sykes attended the Harvard University Business School, Owners and Presidents Management Program; the MIT Center for Real Estate Development Commercial Development Executive Program; and the L’Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, France. He earned his Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University.

Tammy K. Jones has more than 20 years of experience in the commercial real estate industry. Over her entire career, Ms. Jones has invested in and loaned CRE assets on behalf of large pension funds and institutional investors, including Equitable Real Estate (the largest pension fund advisor and investment management firm at the time), GMACCM (one of the largest CRE lenders, owned by GM), and CWCapital (the U.S. debt investment platform owned by Caisse de dépôt, one of the largest pension fund managers in Quebec). She is a seasoned veteran in CRE investments, capital markets, and structured finance. Since 2009, Ms. Jones has served as both co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Basis Investment Group (Basis), a multistrategy commercial real estate investment platform she founded with JEMB Realty Corporation that acquires and originates a variety of senior and subordinated loans, preferred equity, and joint venture equity positions on behalf of its investors. Under her leadership, Basis has succeeded in closing nearly $4B in commercial real estate debt and structured equity-related investments across the United States. Prior to joining Basis, Ms. Jones worked at CWCapital LLC (CW) from 2004 to 2009, serving as head of CW’s fixed and floating rate Capital Markets Lending Division and closing approximately $6B in investments. Between 1997 and 2004, Ms. Jones was a Senior Vice President of Commercial Capital Initiatives, Inc., a GMACCM subsidiary (now Berkadia), and part of the leadership team responsible for creating GMAC’s Capital Markets lending division. Prior to her seven years with GMAC, she held various positions on the equity and asset management side of the business at commercial real estate investment companies including Equitable Real Estate and AMRESCO Management, Inc.

Ms. Jones is currently an Independent Director for Mack-Cali Realty Corporation (NYSE: CLI); a Trustee of The Georgia State University Foundation and on the Investment and Real Estate committees; the Chair of the Real Estate Executive Council (REEC); a member of the President’s Council of Cornell Women (PCCW); a member of the Executive Leadership Council; on the Advisory Board for NYU’s Schack Institute of Real Estate; and the Vice-Chairperson of Basis Impact Group Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating a pipeline of women and minorities in commercial real estate. Ms. Jones formerly served as an Independent Director for Monogram Residential Trust, Inc. (NYSE: MORE). She was recognized as one of The Network Journal’s 25 Most Influential Black Women in Business in 2017 and received the Council of Urban Professionals (CUP) 2019 Finance Catalyst Award. Ms. Jones holds a BA in Economics from Cornell University and an MBA with a concentration in Real Estate Finance from the J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University.