Pattie Ehsaei
A CAREER SHAPED BY EXPERIENCE
Practicing law as a prosecutor in Cook County taught me to make decisions with imperfect information under real consequences. You learn to ask better questions, read people quickly, and build a case that holds up under scrutiny. That discipline never left me.
When I moved into finance, I treated every credit memo the same way I treated a case file. The facts have to line up, the story has to be supported by evidence, and you have to be willing to defend your position in a room full of people who want to poke holes in it. Beyond that, being an Iranian immigrant who started working at ten and paid her own way through college and law school shaped how I lead. I do not romanticize hardship, but I also do not flinch from it. I expect a high standard from my teams because I have never asked anyone to outwork me.
EVALUATING COMPLEX LENDING AND ACQUISITION OPPORTUNITIES
Cash flow tells the truth. Stories do not. I start every deal by understanding how the business actually makes money, who the customers are, how concentrated the revenue is, and what happens if the top three clients walk.
Then I look at management. A great operator can carry a mediocre business through a downturn. A weak operator will sink a great business in any environment.
After that comes structure. I would rather pass on a transaction at the right price with the wrong structure than chase a deal that looks good on paper but leaves the borrower exposed at the first sign of stress. Finally, I underwrite the downside before I get excited about the upside. If the deal still works when the assumptions get cut by twenty percent, you have a real transaction. If it only works in the base case, you have a hope.
EVOLVING M&A AND COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE FINANCING MARKETS
The cheap money era is over, and it is not coming back in the form people remember. Borrowers who built their models on three percent debt are repricing into a very different reality, and that is creating real winners and losers.
On the M&A side, valuation gaps between buyers and sellers are finally starting to close, which means deal flow is picking up for groups with disciplined capital. Private credit has stepped into the space the banks pulled back from, and that trend is accelerating.
I START EVERY DEAL BY UNDERSTANDING HOW THE BUSINESS ACTUALLY MAKES MONEY, WHO THE CUSTOMERS ARE, HOW CONCENTRATED THE REVENUE IS, AND WHAT HAPPENS IF THE TOP THREE CLIENTS WALK.
On the commercial real estate side, distress is real, particularly in office and some segments of multifamily, and refinance walls are forcing decisions that were deferred for two years. The opportunity sits with lenders and sponsors who understand credit, can move quickly, and have the patience to structure deals that protect them in a higher for longer rate environment.
NAVIGATING THE CHALLENGES
For borrowers, the biggest challenge is preparation. Too many come to the table with incomplete financials, optimistic projections, and no clear answer for how they survive a downside scenario. The borrowers who get the best terms are the ones who treat the lender like a partner and walk in with their house in order.
For lenders, the challenge is discipline. There is pressure to deploy capital, but this is exactly the environment where shortcuts on underwriting come back to bite you twelve months later. The way through, on both sides, is rigor. Better data, sharper questions, conservative assumptions, and structures that account for the fact that the next two years are unlikely to look like the last ten. The deals worth doing will hold up to scrutiny. The ones that need you to look the other way are the ones to walk away from.
ADVICE FOR ASPIRING PROFESSIONALS
Reputation compounds faster than any other asset in this industry, and it is the one thing you cannot buy back once you damage it. Always do what is best for the customer, even if it means sending them to another lender. This is the way you build trust.
Be the person who returns calls and emails within 24 hours and tells the truth when the answer is ‘no.’ Build relationships outside of the transactions, because the next opportunity almost always comes from someone you helped two years ago. And finally, get comfortable with rejection. The best deals of my career came after the loudest no.
