DR. SEEK NGEE HUAT

DR. SEEK NGEE HUAT 2008-05-01 Staff Writer Being the head of the real estate program at one of the most powerful institutional investors in Asia, Dr. Seek Ngee Huat is one of the most-watched property investors in the world. With GIC active in Asia, European and American markets, his influence has a global r

Being the head of the real estate program at one of the most powerful institutional investors in Asia, Dr. Seek Ngee Huat is one of the most-watched property investors in the world. With GIC active in Asia, European and American markets, his influence has a global reach. Though the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation is mostly known for its direct real estate investing, the sovereign fund is also quite active as an investor in funds. According to data from PERE's sister database PEREConnect, the fund has allocated $12 billion (€7.5 billion) of its vast fortune to real estate, with about 60 percent of that going to private real estate funds. GIC has invested in two of Lone Star's global funds as well as ProLogis's European fund and Japan fund. Morgan Stanley recently estimated the fund's current assets at $330 million, which means it has plenty to spend. With that much capital behind him Dr. Seek is a busy man. He joined GIC in 1996 from Jones Lang LaSalle in Sydney, and since that time he's helped turn that the portfolio into one of the largest in the world. Dr. Seek says that since he took the reigns one of his main strategies has been to keep GIC's investment approach flexible. “Given the scale and spread of our mandate, our flexible investment approach has put us in good stead as it allows us to exploit the full potential of the universe of opportunities – be it products, sectors, markets, investment vehicles or structures,” he says. “This flexibility has also honed our nimbleness to respond quickly to changes in the global property market arena.” Dr. Seek also has close ties to academic institutions. He serves on the advisory board of real estate programs at the National University of Singapore, Harvard University and Cambridge University. He holds a BSC from the National University of Singapore, an MSC from the University of British Columbia and a PhD from Australian National University.