News & Analysis

The Singapore sage 2006-11-01 Staff Writer Dr. Seek Ngee Huat likes to keep a low profile. Unfortunately, sometimes he doesn't have much of a choice. As the head of the real estate program at one of the most powerful institutional investors in Asia and beyond, Seek is among the most-watched property investor

The philanthropist 2006-11-01 Staff Writer There is no shortage of interesting stories in the world of real estate—Joe E. Robert Jr. is proof of that. Robert got his start in the business when the builder he was working for went bankrupt in the middle of several projects. Seizing upon the opportunity, Robert

The frequent flier 2006-11-01 Staff Writer James Quille has always been a man on the move—and for good reason. The firm he currently heads, Macquarie Global Property Advisors, is one of the most active foreign players in Asia, a region that Quille himself has been investing in since the early 1990s.<br

The young gun 2006-11-01 Staff Writer Chad Pike , still in his thirties, is running Blackstone's real estate operations in Europe, making him one of the youngest stars in the asset class. Though he is often compared to two other young guns—his counterpart in the US, Jon Gray, and the co-head of Morgan Stanl

The market maker 2006-11-01 Staff Writer Globalization has to start somewhere. In the case of European private equity real estate, it arguably began when US investment banks moved their principal real estate investment arms across the Atlantic—in other words, it began with Roger Orf .<br /> <br /&

The godfather 2006-11-01 Staff Writer For many years, the name Dan Neidich was synonymous with the private equity real estate industry. As the founder and head of Goldman's Whitehall Street Real Estate Funds, Neidich oversaw the growth of one of the largest and most influential real estate franchises in the

The sheikh 2006-11-01 Staff Writer Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and the stateowned investment companies he controls are not only developing the whole of Dubai, they are funneling oil money into projects all over the world and, in the process, transforming the competitive landscape of the global priv

The internationalist 2006-11-01 Staff Writer In close to five years at the California Public Employees' Retirement System, Mike McCook transformed the largest pension fund in the US into a global powerhouse among institutional investors in real estate. Though he left his post earlier this year, McCook's infl

The fugitive 2006-11-01 Staff Writer By all accounts, Steven Lee, an ambitious 30-something, Korean-American Harvard MBA, was a rising star at Texas-based Lone Star Funds. However, few falls in the industry's short history have been as dramatic—or as damagingly influential. Today, Lee is facing charges for t

The envelope pusher 2006-11-01 Staff Writer John Kukral may no longer be running the real estate arm of The Blackstone Group, but his mark on the company—and on the industry as a whole—can still be felt.<br /> <br /> An alumnus of JMB Realty, Kukral joined the New York private equity firm in 19