Primary Job Title Director Primary Organization 
Ares Commercial Real Estate
Gender Female
Caroline E. Blakely is a Director of ACRE and currently serves on the Nominating and Governance Committee.
Ms. Blakely is a partner in the Real Estate Group at Cassin & Cassin LLP, a law firm providing legal services that focus on real estate finance, real estate transactions and private client services. Prior to joining Cassin & Cassin
LLP, Ms. Blakely served as a Vice President of the multifamily business of the Federal National Mortgage Association (“Fannie Mae”) from April 1999 to October 2013. In this capacity, Ms. Blakely defined the strategic direction for Fannie Mae’s growing asset management and counterparty responsibilities.
In addition, Ms. Blakely was responsible for mitigating the financial and operational risk of 24 DUS Lenders, including assessing the counterparty’s capital adequacy to share risk with Fannie Mae. She initiated performing note sales and negotiated the first sale of multifamily mortgage servicing rights.
Ms. Blakely also served as Chief Marketing Officer of National Cooperative Bank (“NCB”) and as Senior Managing Director of NCB’s Corporate Banking and Commercial Real Estate Divisions from 1992 to 1999, during which time she served as a member of NCB’s Executive Committee and as President of NCB Capital Corporation.
In 1980, Ms. Blakely founded a law firm specializing in structured finance and real estate lending for acquisition, development and construction loans, where she practiced until 1992.
Ms. Blakely currently serves as a member of the Board of Governors of the CRE Finance Council and volunteers on the Board of Trustees for Global Communities, a non-profit organization specializing in international development and microfinance.
Ms. Blakely holds a B.A. in English from the University of Virginia and a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, where she graduated cum laude.
