The Credit Suisse club: Alum of Swiss bank are some of real estate’s most powerful financiers

List includes Steven Kantor, Anthony Orso, Michael Lehrman and more

(Credit: Bisnow)
(Credit: Bisnow)

While Credit Suisse, the Swiss bank and financial services company, suffered from a mass exodus after the crisis as well as mounting legal troubles, some of the most notable former executives are still making a significant mark on the real estate industry at firms such as Cantor Commercial Real Estate and Pillar Multifamily. 

Bisnow gathered a list of the bank’s biggest players — calling them the “Credit Suisse Mafia” — and found out where they are now.

Among them are Steven Kantor, the former managing director who used to be in charge of real estate finance and securitization. Since leaving the bank he co-founded CCRE at Cantor Fitzgerald. Now he is working, together with his father Edwin, as chief executive officer at S2K Partners, a private equity firm that invests in media, entertainment and leisure, according to Bisnow.

Anthony Orso, the former co-head of the Credit Suisse Real Estate Direct Group, also went on to Cantor Fitzgerald after leaving the Swiss bank and helped co-found CCRE in 2010, where he now still works as co-CEO.

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Sixth on the list of 10 is Robert Brennan, who served as the bank’s global head of the real estate finance and securitization business. Now, he is the senior managing director of Guggenheim Partners and a principal at Pillar Multifamily, which has a portfolio of more than $20 billion. [Bisnow] — Claire Moses