Our Team

Dr. Tingting Zhang

Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Tingting Zhang serves as the Founder and CEO of the TerraCotta Group, where she is responsible for overseeing the company’s investment activities and managing portfolio risk. She manages the Credit Committee at TerraCotta and leads the research and methodology agenda at the TerraCotta Lab, the company’s research division. Dr. Zhang founded TerraCotta in 2004 with the objective of applying academic insights, objectivity, and analytical rigor to commercial real estate lending in order to address real-world challenges.

Prior to starting TerraCotta, Dr. Zhang held a senior researcher position at Eurasia Group, a think tank that pioneered the use of quantitative methods in social and political studies. In 2021, she was recognized as one of sixty global honorees in Private Equity International’s (PEI) special report on Women of Influence in Private Markets, which covered various sectors such as private equity, private debt, real estate, venture capital, infrastructure, and cross strategies. In 2022 and again in 2023, Dr. Zhang was listed in the LA 500, a compilation of the most influential individuals according to Los Angeles Business Journal.

Dr. Zhang earned her Master’s degree in Quantitative Methods and a PhD in International Political Economy from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Dr. Tingting Zhang