Board of Directors

James Dondero serves as President and Chairman of the board of directors of NREF. Mr. Dondero is President of NexPoint and NexPoint Real Estate Advisors, L.P., the latter of which is the Dallas-based parent of the external manager of NREF. He also serves as the President and Chairman of the board of directors of NexPoint Residential Trust, Inc (NYSE: NXRT), as the Chief Executive Officer of NexPoint Hospitality Trust (TSX-V: NHT.U), and as President and a member of the board of directors of VineBrook Homes Trust, Inc. Mr. Dondero has over 30 years of experience investing in credit and equity markets and has helped pioneer credit asset classes.

Brian Mitts, CPA serves as Chief Financial Officer, Executive VP-Finance, Secretary and Treasurer of NREF; as Chief Financial Officer, Treasurer and Assistant Secretary and a member of the board of directors of VineBrook Homes Trust, Inc.; Chief Financial Officer, Executive VP- Finance, Secretary and Treasurer of NexPoint Residential Trust, Inc. (NYSE: NXRT); and Chief Financial Officer, Executive VP-Finance, Treasurer and Corporate Secretary of NexPoint Hospitality Trust (TSX.V: NHT.U). Mr. Mitts also serves as a member of the board of directors for NREF and NXRT. Mr. Mitts is also a member of the investment committee of the Company’s external manager. Mr. Mitts co-founded NexPoint Real Estate Advisors, L.P. (“NREA”), as well as NXRT and other real estate businesses with Mr. McGraner and Mr. Dondero. Currently, Mr. Mitts leads NexPoint’s financial reporting and accounting teams and is integral in financing and capital allocation decisions. Prior to co-founding NREA and NXRT, Mr. Mitts was Chief Operations Officer of Highland Funds Asset Management, L.P., the external advisor of open-end and closed-end funds where he managed the operations of these funds and helped develop new products. Mr. Mitts was also a co-founder of NexPoint Advisors, L.P., the parent of NREA. He has worked for NREA or its affiliates since 2007.

Mr. Constantino is an independent director of NREF. Mr. Constantino has also served as a member of the Board of NexPoint Residential Trust (NYSE: NXRT) since March 2015. Mr. Constantino has over 40 years of audit, advisory and tax experience working for two major accounting firms, Arthur Andersen LLP and KPMG. Mr. Constantino retired from KPMG in late 2009, where he was an audit partner in charge of the firm’s real estate and asset management businesses. Mr. Constantino is, and since 2010 has been, a member of the Board of Directors of Patriot Bank N.A., and since 2012 a member of the Board of Directors of ARCTrust. Mr. Constantino has also served as a consultant for the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. He is a licensed CPA, a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and a member of the New York State Society of Public Accountants. He is currently a member of the Board of Trustees and the Audit Committee Chairman of St. Francis College in Brooklyn Heights, New York.

Mr. Kavanaugh is a independent director of NREF. Mr. Kavanaugh has also served as a member of the Board of NexPoint Residential Trust (NYSE: NXRT) since March 2015. Mr. Kavanaugh is, and since December 2009 has been the CEO of First Foundation Inc. (“FFI”), a California based financial services company. From June 2007 until December 2009, he served as President and Chief Operating Officer of FFI. Mr. Kavanaugh has been the Vice-Chairman of FFI since June 2007. He also is, and since September 2007 has been, the Chairman and CEO of FFI’s wholly owned banking subsidiary, First Foundation Bank. Mr. Kavanaugh was a founding stockholder and served as an Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer and a member of the board of directors of Commercial Capital Bancorp, Inc., the parent holding company of Commercial Capital Bank, from 1999 until 2003. From 1998 until 2003, Mr. Kavanaugh served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer and a director of Commercial Capital Mortgage. From 1993 to 1998, Mr. Kavanaugh was a partner and head of trading for fixed income and equity securities at Great Pacific Securities, Inc., a west coast-based regional securities firm. Mr. Kavanaugh is, and since 2008 has been, a member of the board of directors of Colorado Federal Savings Bank and its parent holding company, Silver Queen Financial Services, Inc. Mr. Kavanaugh also served as a member of the boards of directors of NexBank and its parent holding company, NexBank Capital, Inc., an affiliate of Highland Capital Management, L.P., or Highland, from 2014 until 2015. From 1998 until June 2012, Mr. Kavanaugh served as Independent Trustee and Chairman of the Audit Committee, and from June 2012 until December 2013 served as Chairman, of Highland Mutual Funds, a mutual fund group managed by Highland.

Dr. Laffer is a independent director of NREF. Dr. Laffer has also served as a member of the Board of NexPoint Residential Trust (NYSE: NXRT) since May 2015. Dr. Laffer is the founder and chairman of Laffer Associates, an economic research and consulting firm and the chairman and director of Laffer Investments, a registered investment advisor. Dr. Laffer has also been a director of GEE Group, Inc., a provider of specialized staffing solutions, since January 2015. A former member of President Reagan’s Economic Policy Advisory Board during the 1980s, Dr. Laffer’s economic acumen and influence have earned him the distinction in many publications as The Father of Supply-Side Economics. He has served on several boards of directors of public and private companies, including staffing company MPS Group, Inc., which was sold to Adecco Group for $1.3 billion in 2009. Dr. Laffer was previously a consultant to Secretary of the Treasury William Simon, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and Secretary of the Treasury George Shultz. In the early 1970s, Dr. Laffer was the first to hold the title of Chief Economist at the Office of Management and Budget under Mr. Shultz. Additionally, Dr. Laffer was formerly the Distinguished University Professor at Pepperdine University and a member of the Pepperdine Board of Directors. He also served as Charles B. Thornton Professor of Business Economics at the University of Southern California and as Associate Professor of Business Economics at the University of Chicago.

Ms. Wood is a independent director of NREF. Ms. Wood also serves as Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of ARK Investment Management LLC (“ARK”), which she registered as an investment adviser with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in January 2014. Focused solely on disruptive innovation, ARK aims to identify large-scale investment opportunities in the public markets resulting from technological innovations centered around genome sequencing, robotics, artificial intelligence, energy storage, and blockchain technology. Prior to ARK, Cathie spent twelve years at AllianceBernstein as Chief Investment Officer of Global Thematic Strategies where she managed over $5 billion. Cathie joined Alliance Capital from Tupelo Capital Management, a hedge fund she co-founded which, in 2000, managed $800 million in global thematic strategies. Prior to her tenure at Tupelo Capital, she worked for 18 years with Jennison Associates as Chief Economist, Equity Research Analyst, Portfolio Manager and Director. She started her career in Los Angeles, California at The Capital Group as an Assistant Economist. Cathie received her Bachelor of Science, summa cum laude, in Finance and Economics from the University of Southern California in 1981. In 2018, editors at Bloomberg acknowledged Cathie by selecting her to its second annual Bloomberg 50 list of people across business, entertainment, finance, politics, technology, and science who have defined global business. Additionally, Fortune named Cathie to its exclusive roundtable of experts in the annual Fortune Investors Guide: The Best Investing Advice for 2019 From Fortune’s Experts. In 2016, Cathie received the “Women in Finance – Outstanding Contribution Award” from Market Media, and she was a featured speaker at the World Economic Forum (China) in 2016 & 2017, and the World Strategic Forum (Miami) in 2017.

Dr. Carol Swain, an award-winning political scientist and former tenured professor at Princeton and Vanderbilt Universities, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow for Constitutional Studies with the Texas Public Policy Foundation and an educational advisor for American Cornerstone Institute founded by Dr. Ben Carson. She has served on the Tennessee Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the 1776 Commission. Dr. Swain is the author or editor of 11 books, including the bestseller, Black Eye for America: How Critical Race Theory is Burning Down the House (co-authored Christopher Schorr). Her latest book is Countercultural Living: What Jesus Has to Say About Life, Marriage, Race, Gender, and Materialism. She is an expert on critical race theory, American politics, and race relations. Her television appearances include ABC’s Headline News, BBC Radio and TV, NPR, CNN’s AC360, Fox and Friends, Judge Jeanine, The Ingraham Angle, and Tucker Carson. She has published opinion pieces in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, the Epoch Times, The Financial Times and USA Today. Dr. Swain is an entrepreneur and her businesses include Carol Swain Enterprises, L.L.C. and Unity Training Solutions, L.L.C., which offers an alternative to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Training (DEI). She holds five degrees including a Ph.D. from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an M.S.L. from Yale.