DALLAS – Sept. 3, 2013 – The first CMBS borrower advocate, Ann Hambly, Founder and CEO of Dallas-based 1st Service Solutions, has been named a “Legend: Woman of Distinction” by editors of ALM’s Real Estate Forum.
Hambly is featured in the July/August issue, which is available online at www.reforum-digital.com. This is Real Estate Forum’s 20th Annual ‘Women of Influence’ list.
Sule Aygoren, Editor-in-Chief of Real Estate Forum, said the Legends are those who have become icons in the business.
Hambly, who established 1st Service Solutions in 2005 before the collapse of the commercial real estate market, pioneered the first advocacy service for CMBS borrowers dealing with assumptions and loan restructurings.
“Somebody needed to level the playing field for commercial real estate owners,” said Hambly, who drew on experience as head of servicing for Prudential, Bank of New York, Nomura and GE Capital. “Not a broker, not a lawyer, not an originator, but someone who really understood the process and motives of the servicers.”
In other firsts, the firm’s subsidiary, 1st Service Advisory Solutions became the first to be rated as a commercial mortgage trust advisor in 2012. And Hambly was named the first woman chair of the Mortgage Bankers Association Commercial Board in 2003.
In her role with 1st Service Solutions (http://1stsss.com/), Hambly leads a team of professionals who have resolved more than $8.5 billion in loan assumptions and restructurings since the firm opened eight years ago. Since the beginning of this year, she said the firm has been engaged in assumptions and restructurings totaling $4 billion.
Hambly previously was named one of Real Estate Forum’s Women of Influence in 2010, and National Real Estate Investor’s Most Influential Women in Commercial Real Estate in 2011.