Former Cerberus executive joins GID Investment Advisers

GID Investment Advisers has hired Grant Berlin in the newly created role of global head of capital raising, PERE has learned.

Berlin, who joined on April 1, will be based in Cleveland and report to chief executive Greg Bates. He will become a member of the Atlanta-based firm’s 14-strong executive committee, which includes Bates, chief investment officer Thad Palmer and head of portfolio and asset management W Jeffrey Beckham.

Berlin previously spent nearly five years at New York-based alternative investment firm Cerberus Capital Management, where he was global head of capital raising for its real estate platform and oversaw the client solutions team for the business. Before that, he was head of real estate fundraising and global consultant relationships at Toronto-based mega-manager Brookfield, which he joined in 2012. In the role, he oversaw the firm’s fundraising efforts across real estate debt and equity strategies, and its relationships with global real estate consultants.

The addition of Berlin completes GID’s senior global capital raising team, which the firm began to build in 2022 with the hire of Min Woo Kang as head of Asia-Pacific. The New York-based executive previously worked for nearly two decades at Tishman Speyer and GE Capital Real Estate. Jamal Saab – formerly of Pretium, Natixis and PineBridge Investments – joined the following year as senior managing director and head of Middle East, based in Dubai. Last month, Eugenie Dadachpour came aboard as head of Europe after previously serving as EMEA business development director for Pretium’s UK business. She is based in London.

“A dedicated professional to oversee and coordinate capital raising efforts on a global scale is critical to the continued growth of GID,” Bates said in an email to PERE. “GID has strategically built this capital raising team with experienced professionals to help foster deep investor relationships and tailor the firm’s fundraising approach to meet the needs of investors across various geographies and sectors.”

In addition to four regional executives, GID’s capital raising team includes a few support staff and a separate five-person investor relations team led by Jennifer Newman. “We expect to hire an additional resource or two to cover North America but view the team today as mostly complete,” Bates added.

The chief executive saw Berlin’s hire as part of a long-term strategy to expand and diversify the firm’s industrial, credit and multifamily platforms. “GID believes valuations are approaching trough levels and 2024-2027 will provide attractive investment opportunities across each of our verticals. Similarly, we believe industrial and multifamily development will be attractive again starting in 2026, and we intend to capitalize on those opportunities through our in-house development capability and our strategic partnerships with merchant builders.”

GID has managed third-party capital since 1993. Most recently, the manager closed on $360 million for its GID Industrial Value Fund against a $350 million target in November 2022, according to PERE data. The firm is now in the market with its GID Real Estate Credit Fund, for which it is seeking to raise $1.25 billion, the data showed.

With more than $30 billion of assets under management, GID has invested in the multifamily sector since 1960 and industrial real estate since 1984. Two years ago, the firm launched a credit platform focusing on originating US senior commercial real estate mortgages, along with mezzanine debt and preferred equity.