As recently as 1994, the top 10 largest real estate investment management firms collectively controlled approximately $84 billion. Today, several firms each control more than $84 billion in AUM. It’s truly amazing how the size and scope of the industry has expanded in just 20 short years. The size of the client bases of these firms also has grown. While a firm serving 50 to100 or more client relationships would have been relatively rare 20 years ago, it has become the norm for most if not all of the largest, truly global firms today.
As the size of these firms has grown, the demands on the CEOs of these firms has grown as well. It is becoming harder and harder for these CEOs to maintain as close a relationship with the constituencies they serve as they once enjoyed.
That is why face-to-face time with the leaders of these firms has become so valuable, and why so many investors are taking advantage of the opportunities to meet with these CEOs when they can stop by, or when the opportunity is created to visit with them at their respective firms’ annual client conferences.
We think it is always fascinating to hear what the leaders of these firms have to say about how they and their firms are viewing the markets from a strategic standpoint.
To make it easier to do so, we have initiated a new video series called “View from the Top,” where we will be posting to our website brief face-to-face video interviews with the CEOs who head up the firms that sponsor our publications. Some of these are running small, emerging enterprises; others are running global firms that employ more than 1,000 employees in varying locations around the globe. You will hear from the CEOs of debt platforms, equity platforms, real estate securities investment management platforms, and firms with a fully diversified and, again, global product line. Some of their names will be instantly recognizable; others, less well-known but nevertheless with an equally interesting and often unique perspective on the strategic directions of the markets.
The first of these, an interview with Stuart Boesky, CEO of Pembrook Capital Management, can be accessed by clicking on this link.
We hope you enjoy these intimate interviews and gain a better understanding of how the leaders of some of the leading firms around the globe are viewing market risks and opportunities today.
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Geoffrey Dohrmann is president and CEO of Institutional Real Estate, Inc.
