Apollo’s RE team remains intact after Azelby’s departure

Joe Azelby has left Apollo Global Management after a year at the New York-based alternative investment manager.

Azelby joined the firm, which declined to comment, last spring as global head of real assets, PERE previously reported. Before that, he spent 30 years at JPMorgan Asset Management, where he built up the real assets team.

Azelby could not be reached for comment on his future plans, but PERE understands that he will not be replaced at Apollo.

Apollo’s real estate team remains intact following Azelby’s departure last month, a person with knowledge of the situation told PERE. In November, Philip Mintz was promoted from partner in Asia to chief investment officer of the real estate group, which expanded his

responsibilities to include Americas real estate, PERE reported.

Roger Orf, who has been with the firm since 2010, continues to oversee Apollo’s European real estate business. Scott Weiner remains head of global commercial real estate debt.

Azelby came to Apollo to build the firm’s infrastructure platform after creating a $10 billion business at JPMorgan. Apollo co-founder Josh Harris said on the firm’s second-quarter earnings call last year that infrastructure is part of a “natural growth opportunity” for its real assets portfolio. The firm managed $2.8 billion in real assets equity and $10.4 billion in real assets debt as of March 31, according to its first-quarter earnings report. Apollo’s real assets business includes real estate and other unspecified asset classes, according to its website.

As chief executive of JPMorgan’s global real assets group, Azelby led a team of 500 investment professionals in 20 cities around the world managing over $95 billion in assets. The group invests across the US, Europe, Asia, Australia and Brazil.

Azelby, who oversaw the group since 1998, is considered a pioneer in the real assets space, having overseen the transformation of JPMorgan’s US real estate business into a global real assets investment platform. The former linebacker played with three National Football League teams, as he recounted in a 2013 PERE profile, but diversified his career prospects by interning for a bank holding company later purchased by JPMorgan. Azelby joined JPMorgan in 1986 as a managing director, according to his LinkedIn profile.