Long-time capital raiser Matt Hershey has been named a partner of the New York-based advisory Hodes Weill & Associates, PERE has learned.
Hershey joined Hodes Weill from Brookfield in 2012 and became a managing director in 2015. Two years ago, he moved to Denver to establish the firm’s western US-focused office. In addition to becoming the firm’s sixth partner, the 25-year industry veteran will also oversee its institutional investor coverage and head its global distribution team.
He told PERE he sees the current market environment as a pivotal moment for private real estate capital raising, with investor preferences for strategies and structures evolving rapidly amid market distress. “It’s an interesting inflection point to have this opportunity to work at this level in the firm,” he said. “The combination of how the market has cycled, where investors stand in terms of portfolio strategy and where our whole partnership is as a business, it’s just really exciting to be able to have this level of perspective across the market.”
Last year, Hershey spearheaded the launch of Maven, the firm’s new online portal, during the height of the pandemic. The platform has become a valuable tool for investors to commit to and monitor investments during the travel restrictions of the covid era, managing partner David Hodes told PERE.
The decision to make Hershey a partner was the result of the leadership he has exhibited within the firm and more broadly, Hodes said. “Becoming a partner isn’t just another promotion and its not just about Matt’s great relationships, work ethic and strong results,” Hodes said. “It also reflects his position of thought leadership in our industry, as well as his leadership within the company. He joins the senior management of our company, helping us to chart our future path.”
Hershey’s promotion comes amid an effort by Hodes Weill to fine-tune its capital-raising platform globally over the past half year. Rima Batal, formerly of GAK Capital, was hired in June as a vice-president in the firm’s London office where she will to lead a renewed push into the Middle East. Yoshiko Nakamura, formerly of AMP Capital in Tokyo, joined Hodes Weill last month as a vice-president and will lead the firm’s Japan coverage, which was previously done from Hong Kong. Alexander Sadighi joined in October in Hodes Weill’s New York office to cover the US Midwest. He most recently worked at Manhattan-based Dune Real Estate Partners.
While Yoshiko’s position in Tokyo is a net gain for the firm, the other two positions were hired to fill recent departures. Hodes said the mandates for Batal and Sadighi are different from their predecessors to be better aligned with market interests.
“We try to anticipate where capital will be flowing from the next three, five, seven years and position our people in the right places,” he said. “It’s not a static coverage responsibility, it has to be more dynamics because investors shift preferences, and we try to stay ahead of the curve.”
Aside from managing partners Hodes and Doug Weill, the other partners at the firm include Susan Swanezy, Stuart Baldwin and Alfredo Lobo.
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