Cerberus Capital Management has recruited a former Brookfield Asset Management executive as its first senior managing director and global head of real estate fundraising, PERE has learned.

Grant Berlin starts at the New York-based private investment firm today.

Berlin was previously head of real estate fundraising and global consultant relationships at Brookfield, which he joined in 2012. In the role, he oversaw capital raising teams for the firm’s private real estate funds in the US and its relationships with global consultants. PERE understands Berlin’s responsibilities at Brookfield will be inherited by other team members.

Prior to Brookfield, the 25-year industry veteran was head of real estate fundraising at Alliance Bernstein and before that, was managing director at Tishman Speyer. There, he was the firm’s primary relationship manager with consultants and covered many of its US institutional investors. Other roles included partner at Invesco Realty Advisors in Dallas and vice-president in the real estate group at JPMorgan Investment Management.

PERE understands that Cerberus’s capital raising team previously comprised generalists working across the firm’s investment strategies, which include real estate, private equity, non-performing loans, middle-market direct lending and corporate credit. However, the firm has been moving toward industry-specific heads because the capital raiser’s role can vary from asset class to asset class, including specific investor and consultant relationships.

In real estate, Cerberus’s funds include its flagship Cerberus Institutional Real Estate Partners series, which are focused on distressed real estate investments globally but particularly in the US and Western Europe. The most recent vehicle in the series, CIREP IV, attracted $1.8 billion in 2017. Other real estate-related products included its first dedicated NPL fund, Cerberus Global NPL Fund, which was closed on $4.1 billion of commitments this year, and another, core-plus fund.