George Kok is set to join Morgan Stanley as a managing director in the bank’s commercial real estate lending group, a person familiar with the situation said.
The CMBS market veteran joins the team from Ladder Capital, a New York based commercial real estate finance company, where he was recruited in 2013 as head of underwriting.
At Morgan Stanley, Kok will be working on both portfolio and securitized mortgages. He will report to managing director Jim Flaum, global head of commercial real estate lending. Kok previously worked at Morgan Stanley in the 1990s. where he co-led the bank's conduit program.
The move comes as Morgan Stanley is looking to grow its CRE lending, said the source.
Prior to Ladder Capital, Kok worked at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he served as managing director and co-head of real estate structured finance.
