Jason Aro

General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer

Mr. Aro serves as the General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer for Pender Capital Management and brings 25 years of experience as legal counsel with a focus on real estate, secured finance and capital markets transactions. Prior to joining Pender Capital, Mr. Aro served in several key legal and business roles. Most recently, he served as General Counsel for Rama Capital Partners, LLC and Athas Capital Group, Inc., companies focused on investment banking in the non-QM space, originating well over $1B annually. Previous to Athas and Rama, Mr. Aro served as Assistant General Counsel and Head of Compliance for Wedgewood, LLC, parent of the Wedgewood family of companies. Mr. Aro held primary legal and compliance responsibilities across the entire umbrella which include businesses focused on real estate investments, mortgage lending, real estate brokerage, capital markets investments, escrow services, home warranty, and interior design, among others. Prior to Wedgewood and during the heart of the financial crisis, Mr. Aro served as Senior Vice President and Assistant General Counsel for Bank of America, N.A. At the Bank, Mr. Aro led teams with responsibility across mortgage, card and deposit matters, focusing on high-profile mortgage regulatory issues. Mr. Aro routinely met with federal regulators and state attorneys general, advising on bank practices and negotiating operational changes. Before joining Bank of America, Mr. Aro served as General Counsel at JG Real Estate, a real estate investment and services company where he focused on the acquisition of underutilized assets as well as negotiation of services provided to other real estate companies. Prior thereto, Mr. Aro served as Associate General Counsel for AIMCO, a publicly traded Real Estate Investment Trust and the largest owner and operator of multifamily housing in the United States. There, Mr. Aro focused on transactions and REIT compliance, with an emphasis on dispositions, tax credit and mark-to-market matters. Mr. Aro started his legal career at the firms of Allan Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis and Hunton Andrews & Kurth prior to his in-house run with AIMCO. While in private practice, Mr. Aro represented clients in all types of real estate, secured finance and capital market matters. Mr. Aro received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Irvine and his Juris Doctor from Southwestern University School of Law.