Wesley R. Edens

Overview

Mr. Edens has been Chairman of our board of directors since inception. Mr. Edens also served as our Chief Executive Officer from our inception until February 2007. Mr. Edens is the Chairman of the board of directors and the Chief Executive Officer of Fortress Investment Group LLC, an affiliate of our manager. Mr. Edens has been a principal and the Chairman of the Management Committee of Fortress since co-founding Fortress in May 1998. Mr. Edens is responsible for the private equity and publicly traded alternative investment businesses of Fortress Investment Group LLC. He is also Chairman of the board of directors of each of Aircastle Limited, Brookdale Senior Living Inc., Eurocastle Investment Limited, GateHouse Media, Inc. and Mapeley Limited, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Newcastle Investment Holdings LLC (the predecessor of Newcastle) and a director of Crown Castle International Corp. and GAGFAH S.A. Mr. Edens was the Chief Executive Officer of Global Signal Inc. from February 2004 to April 2006 and Chairman of the board of directors from October 2002 to January 2007. Mr. Edens serves in various capacities in the following five registered investment companies: Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Trustee of Fortress Registered Investment Trust and Fortress Investment Trust II; Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Fortress Brookdale Investment Fund LLC and Fortress Pinnacle Investment Fund LLC and Chief Executive Officer of RIC Coinvestment Fund GP LLC. Prior to forming Fortress Investment Group LLC, Mr. Edens was a partner and a managing director of BlackRock Financial Management Inc., where he headed BlackRock Asset Investors, a private equity fund. In addition, Mr. Edens was formerly a partner and a managing director of Lehman Brothers.