| Item 5.02 | Departure of Directors or Certain Officers; Election of Directors; Appointment of Certain Officers; Compensatory Arrangements of Certain Officers. |
Director Resignation
On February 1, 2023, Martin L. Edelman gave notice of his resignation to the Board of Directors (the “Board of Directors”) of Blackstone Mortgage Trust, Inc. (the “Company”) effective immediately prior to the appointment of his replacement. The Board of Directors thanked Mr. Edelman for 26 years of dedicated service to the Company and its predecessor business through a period of tremendous growth.
Mr. Edelman’s notice to resign is not the result of any disagreement with the Company on any matter relating to the Company’s operations, policies or practices.
Director Appointment
On February 1, 2023, the Board of Directors elected Gilda Perez-Alvarado to fill the vacancy created by Mr. Edelman’s resignation. Ms. Perez-Alvarado, 42, is the Global Chief Executive Officer of JLL Hotels & Hospitality (a division of JLL), where she is responsible for investment sales, debt and equity placement, strategic advisory and asset management across three global regions: Americas, EMEA and Asia Pacific. Additionally, Gilda leads the group’s Global Hotel Desk, a specialized team of cross-border investment sales professionals based in the Middle East, Asia Pacific, the Americas and Europe. From September 2018 until January 2021, Ms. Perez-Alvarado served as CEO, Hotels & Hospitality, Americas and prior to that was a Managing Director at JLL. She also has served on the Board of Directors of Sonder (NASDAQ: SOND) since September 2021 and is a member of its nominating, corporate governance, and social responsibility committee. Ms. Perez-Alvarado is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Cornell University since June 2022, and is an active member of IREFAC (Industry Real Estate Financing Advisory Council), a member of Cornell School of Hotel Administration Dean’s Advisory Board, a member of WX New York Women Executives in Real Estate, and a member of the World Travel and Tourism Council. She is a graduate of the Cornell School of Hotel Administration, where she graduated with Honors and served as Degree Marshall for her graduating class, and received her Masters in Business Administration degree from Instituto de Empresa (IE Business School) in Madrid, Spain. The Company believes Ms. Perez-Alvarado’s extensive professional experience in the hotel and hospitality industry, including internationally, provides the Board of Directors with valuable perspectives into the Company’s business.
The selection of Ms. Perez-Alvarado to serve as a director of the Company was not pursuant to any arrangement or understanding with any other person. There are no family relationships between Ms. Perez-Alvarado and any director or executive officer of the Company and there are no transactions between Ms. Perez-Alvarado and the Company that would be required to be reported under Item 404(a) of Regulation S-K.
For her service as a director, Ms. Perez-Alvarado will be entitled to receive the compensation for non-employee directors described under the heading “Executive Compensation—Non-Employee Director Compensation” in the Company’s definitive proxy statement on Schedule 14A relating to the Company’s 2022 annual meeting of stockholders filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 29, 2022, which description is incorporated herein by reference, as amended or supplemented by the Board of Directors.
