Mr. Vranos has been our Portfolio Manager since our conversion to a registered closed-end fund on April 1, 2025, and was previously our Co-Chief Investment Officer since October 2012. Mr. Vranos is also the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Ellington Credit Company Management LLC (the “Adviser”). He oversees the Adviser’s investment activities, including those of the Fund. Mr. Vranos holds ultimate responsibility for portfolio construction, including strategy-level allocation and risk targets, and holds a prominent role in the implementation of credit and interest rate hedging strategies across the Adviser’s constituent funds. He interacts on a regular basis with members of senior management of the Adviser, including Mr. Borenstein, to discuss both high-level and trade-specific portfolio management and strategy. Mr. Vranos founded Ellington Management Group, L.L.C. (“EMG”) in December of 1994 to capitalize on distressed conditions in the MBS derivatives market. Mr. Vranos currently sits on the following committees at EMG: Executive, Investment and Risk Management, Portfolio Management, Risk Review and European Asset Risk Subcommittee. Prior to founding EMG in December 1994, Mr. Vranos was the Senior Managing Director of Kidder Peabody in charge of RMBS trading. With Mr. Vranos as head trader and senior manager, Kidder Peabody’s MBS department became a leader on Wall Street in CMO underwriting for each of the three years between 1991 and 1993. Mr. Vranos began his Wall Street career in 1983, after graduating magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics from Harvard University. Mr. Vranos also devotes much of his time, energy, and resources to philanthropic causes, donating to worthy child advocacy, homeless relief, education, and medical research organizations across the country. A longtime director of Hedge Funds Care and recipient of the organization’s 2007 Lifetime Award for Caring, he supports the group’s mission to prevent child abuse and provide assistance for families in need. Mr. Vranos recently established a research fellowship to sponsor the ongoing work of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. He currently resides in Greenwich, Connecticut.