Erik P. Nygaard is the Chief Information Officer of Fortress. Mr. Nygaard co-founded Fortress Investment Group in 1998 with Wes Edens, Robert Kauffman and Randal Nardone. Mr. Nygaard is head of the Financial Engineering Group for FIC, responsible for the cash flow modeling and financial engineering of all new investments.

Previously, Mr. Nygaard was a principal of BlackRock Financial Management, and a Managing Director of BlackRock Asset Investors, where he ran the financial engineering group and handled all aspects of information technology and cash flow analysis. From 1990 to 1994, Mr. Nygaard was a Director at Nomura Securities International, where he was responsible for all aspects of over $30 billion in REMIC issuance as head of the Mortgage Structuring Group. From 1986 to 1990 Mr. Nygaard was a Vice President of the Mortgage Trading Desk of Lehman Brothers. Mr. Nygaard has approximately 16 years experience in capital markets and real estate related investments.

Mr. Nygaard received a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.