Ethan Penner, who has helped shape modern real-estate finance, announced his candidacy for governor of California during the Future Proof Festival in Huntington Beach, Calif. Penner, who created the commercial mortgage-back securities (CMBS) market in the early 1990s, is running as an Independent.
“I’m not going into it for fun, that’s for sure,” Penner told advisors and other attendees who gathered to hear him speak on stage at the financial industry event, held Sept. 9-11. “California has been mismanaged to a level that is shocking to me.”
“I just felt compelled that somebody has to stand up and do something,” Penner told his audience, after stating that California is ranked last among the 50 states for unemployment, poverty, homelessness, tax friendliness and net migration…