Naureen Dhanani

As Executive Vice President of Credit and Operations at Merchants Capital, Naureen Dhanani leads Merchants Capital’s credit, closing and third-party reporting teams for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and FHA production. Ms. Dhanani ensures alignment with agency partners and internal platforms while driving operational excellence and cross-functional collaboration, managing key agency relationships, and resolving complex credit and production issues.

Ms. Dhanani is an accomplished leader in affordable housing finance with over a decade of experience delivering creative capital solutions and building strategic partnerships across the public and private sectors. As a Senior Manager at Freddie Mac Multifamily, she led a high-performing team responsible for over $6 billion in annual originations, helping meet critical affordable housing needs.

Her career is marked by a consistent drive to innovate, by designing loan products to advance Freddie Mac’s mission under FHFA’s Duty to Serve, modernizing underwriting processes, and catalyzing the growth of impact financing in underserved markets. Her cross-functional collaboration with Optigo® lenders, internal capital markets teams, and housing sponsors exemplifies her ability to navigate complexity and deliver results that matter.

With a Master of Business Administration in Innovation, Leadership, and Management and a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance, Economics, and Humanitarian Affairs from James Madison University, she brings both analytical rigor and a deep commitment to affordable housing.