R. Ramin Kamfar, 62, has served as our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer since November 2025.
Mr. Kamfar started his career as an investment banker at Lehman Brothers Inc. in 1988, and has over 35 years of experience in various aspects of mergers and acquisitions, private equity investing, investment banking, asset management, private wealth, retail, and public and private financings.
From 1993 to 2002, Mr. Kamfar executed a growth/consolidation strategy to build a startup into a leading public company in the ‘fast casual’ restaurant market that became known as Einstein Noah Restaurant Group, Inc. (formerly Nasdaq: BAGL), which had approximately 800 locations and $400 million in revenue by the time of Mr. Kamfar’s departure. From 1999 to 2002, Mr. Kamfar also served as an investor, advisor and member of the Board of Directors of Vsource, Inc., a technology company subsequently sold to Symphony House (KL: SYMPHNY), a leading business process outsourcing company focused on the Fortune 500 and Global 500.
In 2002 Mr. Kamfar left Einstein to found Bluerock, where he has served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and which he has built into a leading alternative asset management firm focused on the private wealth channel. Since its founding in 2002, Bluerock has acquired and managed assets of approximately $20 billion across real estate and private credit. During this time Mr. Kamfar served as founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Bluerock Residential Growth REIT, a publicly-traded REIT listed on the NYSE American (“BRG”) until its sale in 2022 which delivered the highest Total Shareholder Return across the REIT industry across 1-, 2-, 3-, and 4-year periods.
Mr. Kamfar currently serves as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Bluerock Homes Trust, a publicly-traded REIT listed on the NYSE American (“BHM”) since its spin-off from BRG in 2022, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Bluerock Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company, since 2025, and Chairman of each of Bluerock High Income Institutional Credit Fund and Bluerock Private Real Estate Fund (NYSE: BPRE) (formerly known as Bluerock Total Income+ Real Estate Fund), since 2021 and 2012, respectively.
Mr. Kamfar received an M.B.A. degree with distinction in Finance in 1988 from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. degree with distinction in Finance in 1985 from the University of Maryland, College Park. We believe Mr. Kamfar’s experience in the finance industry makes him well qualified to serve on our board of directors.