Morgan Stanley rehires executive – Exclusive

Claiborne Johnston, who previously worked for more than a decade at Morgan Stanley, has returned to the firm after a four-year stint at Invesco, PERE has learned.

Johnston, who rejoined the firm earlier this month, will serve as a managing director responsible for North American investor coverage within the real assets group at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, the New York-based investment bank’s investment management arm, according to people familiar with the matter.

The global investor coverage team, which reports to head of real assets John Klopp, also includes Gareth Dittmer in Europe and Martijn van Eldik in Asia.

PERE reported in April that Morgan Stanley had formed a new real assets group, under which its global private real estate investing platform, Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing (MSREI), would be a key component.

In addition to MSREI, the group also includes private infrastructure and listed real estate and infrastructure securities. Johnston will be charged with raising capital across real estate, infrastructure and other real assets.

As part of the group’s creation, Klopp, formerly co-head of MSREI, was named head of real assets, and is expected to transition out of his roles as co-chief executive and co-chief investment officer and head of Americas at MSREI. With Klopp’s promotion, Olivier de Poulpiquet, who had been co-head with Klopp since 2010, became MSREI’s sole CEO and CIO.

Morgan Stanley confirmed Johnston’s rehire but declined to comment further.

Johnston most recently was at Invesco Real Estate, where he was a managing director and client portfolio manager responsible for North American client coverage and global capital raising activities from 2012 to 2016. Johnston had joined Invesco amid a growing client base at the firm, according to his hire announcement at the time.

Prior to working at Invesco, Johnston was at Morgan Stanley from 2000 to 2012, primarily within the firm’s private capital markets group. During his previous tenure at Morgan Stanley, he handled both principal and banking-related activities, covering a variety of real estate investment banking and investment management activities and institutional investors.