Morgan Stanley nabs Goldman man to head RE fund of funds

Former Goldman Sachs managing director Joseph Stecher is tasked with heading Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners' new real estate fund of funds business.

Morgan Stanley Investment Management has appointed former managing director of Goldman Sachs’ real estate fund of funds, Joseph Stecher, as managing director and chief investment officer for the Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners’ (Morgan Stanley AIP) new real estate fund of funds business.

In addition to real estate fund of funds, Morgan Stanley AIP includes portfolios of hedge funds and private equity funds. The real estate fund of funds business will “offer clients an alternative means to access the real estate markets globally,” Cory Pulfrey, head of Morgan Stanley AIP said in a statement.

“Joseph’s track record in pricing and structuring large complex transactions, developing strategies for operation and exit, evaluating partners and managing real estate makes him the ideal chief investment officer for our real estate fund of funds business,” Pulfrey added.

In his new post, Stecher, based in New York, will be responsible for overseeing the identification, selection and management of real estate funds. Along with Paul Vosper, chief operating officer of the real estate fund of funds business, the two will build a team initially located in New York and London that will invest in unlisted private equity funds globally, co-investments and secondaries. Vosper is based in London.

Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Stecher was a managing director at Goldman Sachs where he managed a global program of real estate funds of funds and separate accounts for institutions and high net worth individuals. Before Goldman, Stecher was portfolio manager and director of business strategy at General Motors Asset Management where he managed $1.5 billion ($962 million) of direct and indirect private equity real estate, committed more than $5 billion to a mix of real estate investments and oversaw the management of more than 33 million square feet of real estate assets.