Robert Dobilas
Managing Partner
Robert Dobilas is an accomplished and highly entrepreneurial Senior Level Executive with broad exposure and leadership management experience in the financial services information industry. Robert designs and implements strategies to grow business through expansion, acquisition and new product development. As Managing Partner for Orchard, Robert is a leader, innovator and change agent in all areas of business operations. He fosters extensive business relationships with key constituencies including CFOs and CEOs of major financial services firms, domestic and international regulators as well as global print & TV media outlets.
In 2000, Robert founded Realpoint, the first successful independently owned and operated subscription-based research firm providing analysis to the Commercial Mortgage Backed (CMBS) and Commercial Real Estate industries. Realpoint was part of GMAC Commercial Mortgage Corporation (also known as Capmark Finance), one of the world’s largest commercial real estate finance companies. From 2008 to 2010, Robert grew the company and was very active in Washington D.C. working with the SEC, Congressmen and Senators in helping them understand the conflicts and causes of the collapse of the current Rating Agency Issuer paid models. Robert sold Realpoint, LLC to Morningstar, Inc., where he served as President for Morningstar Credit Ratings, LLC, a subsidiary of Morningstar, Inc. until late 2012.
Prior to founding Realpoint, Robert served as Senior Vice President for Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette’s (DLJ) Real Estate Research Group. While at DLJ, he was responsible for analyzing and researching real estate debt securities including CMBS and REIT debt. He was also instrumental in the development and implementation of new product lines such as a small balance loan program and the introduction of environmental insurance to the CMBS industry.
Prior to joining DLJ, Robert was an associate in the Real Estate Finance Group at Standard & Poor’s, where he was responsible for evaluating and structuring commercial mortgage-backed securities and developing proprietary software models for debt sizing, loss analysis, underwriting, collateral valuations, and surveillance deal tracking.
Education: B.S., Economics, Rutgers University
M.B.A., Monmouth University
Craig Lieberman
Managing Partner
Craig Lieberman has more than 25 years experience in all aspects of the commercial real estate industry, including portfolio management, real estate investment and management, loan origination, loan workouts, real estate bankruptcy reorganizations, debt and structured credit expertise and commercial mortgage REIT management. In his role at Orchard, Craig is responsible for the development and marketing of a fund management platform serving global investors, consulting on restructuring of defaulted CMBS loans for hedge fund clients, and serving as an expert witness in disputes related to the valuation of commercial mortgage loans and the operation of CMBS conduit lending platforms.
Prior to joining Orchard, Craig was Managing Director at CWCapital, where he managed over $8 billion of commercial real estate debt, including mezzanine loans, B-Notes, whole loans and CMBS positions. He was also responsible for all areas related to the issuance of CDO and CMBS transactions. In addition Craig was instrumental in the acquisition and integration of both the Allied and CRIIMI MAE special servicing platforms to create the second largest special servicer in the CMBS industry. Craig was also tasked with the planning and launch of a commercial mortgage REIT focused on the acquisition of high grade CMBS.
As Executive Vice President for CRIIMI MAE, Craig personally worked out and modified over $2 billion of commercial real estate loans. In the course of his duties he also created the work-out delayed reimbursement of advances structure which was subsequently adopted into almost all new PSAs. He was also responsible for managing the restructuring of the organization’s real estate operations and day-to-day management of the special servicing platform.
Craig also brings his significant experience as Senior Executive member of the Commercial Mortgage Loan Conduit group at Wachovia Bank in connection with commercial loan origination, securitization and loan distribution. He was also a partner in a law firm, specializing in commercial real estate securitization, lending and general practice.
Education: University of Michigan, School of Business, B.B.A. Finance and Accounting
Northwestern University School of Law, J. D.
Steve Jernigan
Managing Partner
Steve Jernigan has more than 16 years experience in commercial real estate finance, portfolio management, high-yield debt investing, credit underwriting, cash flow modeling and capital markets execution. As Managing Partner for Orchard, Steve is responsible for managing clients and marketing the platform internationally. He is also in charge of identifying potential assets for acquisition and creating the valuation models and plans. He has consulted on a long-term basis with one of the largest hedge funds in the world to help them develop a strategy for investing in CMBS and commercial real estate.
As a Director at CWCapital, Steve was largely responsible for the day-to-day management of $5 billion of commercial real estate securities included in various securitized structures, including buy/sell decisions, risk weighting metrics, portfolio composition analysis, rating agency interaction and collateral performance review. He was also responsible for developing complex cash flow models used for CDO structures, credit underwriting and capital market executions.
Prior to CWCapital, Steve worked at RealPoint, LLC, a nationally recognized statistical rating organization (now owned by Morningstar). At Realpoint, Steve was responsible for developing systems to underwrite and credit-analyze CMBS which was incorporated by RealPoint in their subscription-based CMBS monitoring system.
Steve also worked at CRIIMI MAE, Inc. and was directly involved in re-underwriting the company’s entire portfolio of underlying commercial mortgage loans, totaling an excess of $20 billion, and assisted in work-out and restructuring of over $1 billion of commercial real estate mortgage loans.
Education: B.S. Finance & International Business, Pennsylvania State University