On and effective as of April 24, 2018, the Board of Directors of Ares Commercial Real Estate Corporation increased the size of the Board from eight to nine members and appointed Edmond N. Moriarty, III as an independent Class I director to fill the vacancy created by such increase. The initial term of Mr. Moriarty, as a Class I director, will expire at the 2019 annual meeting of stockholders of the company. Mr. Moriarty has been the Chief Financial Officer and Head of Risk for Rockefeller Capital Management and a member of its Executive Committee since March 2018. From February 2010 to February 2016, Mr. Moriarty served in various senior management positions with Morgan Stanley, including as the Head of Merchant Banking & Real Estate Investing, Alternative Investment Partners (AIP), and Managed Futures at Morgan Stanley which, in aggregate managed $77 billion of assets under management across a variety of alternative strategies and products.