Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners (AIP), the multi-manager arm of the New York-based investment bank Morgan Stanley, continues to see senior turnover with its real estate business.
Brian Schneider, formerly the head of AIP Real Estate, has departed the firm after less than a year in the post and moved to Prime Finance, a commercial real estate finance company. Schneider had joined AIP last May, initially as a consultant and then as a full-time employee as a managing director before being named real estate co-head in August.
He has now taken on a new role at Prime Finance as head of investor relations, according to his LinkedIn profile. The firm originates loans on properties in the US and also invests in CMBS B-pieces through different pools of capital. The firm has raised four funds and is currently raising two new vehicles – its fifth fund for mortgage originations and another fund targeting investments in CMBS B-pieces.
Schneider’s exit marks the third leadership departure at AIP Real Estate in four years. Morgan Stanley is understood to not have determined a new head for AIP Real Estate at the present time. It is unknown who is managing the group and its funds currently. The firm declined to comment.
In March 2012, former chief investment officer Joseph Stecher abruptly left the business and was succeeded by David Boyle, who took over the CIO role, and Paul Vosper, who returned to AIP from RREEF to assume his former post as chief operating officer. Boyle and Vosper jointly acted as heads of the real estate business. Last August, however, PERE reported that AIP Real Estate had recruited Schneider as its new co-head, while Boyle and Vosper were expected to step down by mid-2016 and year-end 2015, respectively.
Vosper went on to join PIMCO, a Newport Beach, California-based investment management firm, in a new role in May. He assumed the newly created position of real estate strategist in the company’s product management group, reporting to Jen Bridwell, managing director and head of product management and global head of PIMCO’s alternative products.
It is unclear where Boyle is now employed. He had been at AIP since December 2008, according to his LinkedIn profile, and was executive director and portfolio manager prior to be naming co-head of AIP Real Estate in 2012.
In February, AIP Real Estate held a final close of more than $225 million on Private Markets Income Fund I, its first fund of funds to invest in multiple asset classes, including real estate. In February 2015, AIP Real Estate raised more than $500 million in commitments for AIP Phoenix Global Real Estate Secondaries Fund II (Phoenix II) and other real estate fund of funds separate accounts from global pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, and high net worth individuals. Phoenix II is focused primarily on the acquisition of secondary interests in private equity real estate funds and co-investments alongside fund managers. The group typically focuses on primaries, secondaries and co-investments involving small- to midsized managers globally.
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