CalSTRS’ Haase to join Tokyo firm

Real estate investment officer Charles Haase has left the California pension plan and plans to take a new position at Tokyu Livable in Japan next month.

Charles Haase, real estate investment officer at the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS), has resigned from his post at the pension plan and has accepted a new position as advisor on global strategy with Tokyu Livable, a commercial real estate services firm in Tokyo. He will begin his new job on April 16.

According to an email sent to friends and colleagues, and seen by PERE, Haase left the $152.2 billion pension plan on Friday. “After eight-and-a-half thoroughly enjoyable years in the real estate investments office, I have decided to move to Japan to be with my family,” he wrote in the email. Haase’s wife, who works in Tokyo, as well as the couple’s infant son, currently reside in Japan.

In an interview with PERE, Haase said he will be helping his new employer to build an investment management business for foreign real estate investors with an interest in Japan. His responsibilities will include capital raising, product development and investor relations. Established in 1972, Tokyo Livable has 2,275 employees across 130 offices in Japan and provides sales, leasing and property management services, according to the company's website.

Haase said he was not barred from joining a fund manager that had done business with CalSTRS, but he is restricted from raising capital from CALSTRS for a year and cannot bid on any requests for proposals that he helped write while at the pension plan.

Haase joined West Sacramento, California-based CalSTRS in 2003 as an investment officer in the pension fund’s real estate division. There, he oversaw the structure and management of several of the pension’s opportunistic and value-added commingled fund investments in the US, Europe, Asia and Latin America and was responsible for CalSTRS’ direct US multifamily investments, which comprise more than 50,000 units. Haase managed 21 investor relationships, representing more than $2.65 billion in net asset value.

Prior to joining CalSTRS, Haase was an assistant professor at San Francisco State University, where he taught macroeconomics and monetary theory and policy.