Starwood hires ADIA exec

Starwood Capital Group has brought on a new senior capital raiser, John McCarthy, who will serve as managing director of global capital raising. McCarthy, who started late last month, is in charge of managing and expanding investor relationships globally.

His new role marks a return to Starwood, where he previously served as global head of asset management from 2009 to 2012 and also was a member of the firm’s investment committee. He left to become a senior portfolio manager and deputy head of Europe for the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA). In that position, he helped to oversee the European real estate investing and asset management teams and sat on the organization’s executive and global strategy committees.

Prior to his first stint at Starwood, McCarthy acted as global co-head of asset management for Lehman Brothers Real Estate Private Equity and was based in London. Before Lehman, he was a partner at O’Connor Capital Partners and co-head of the firm’s European business and head of European asset management. Earlier, he worked for 17 years at GE Capital, where he held a variety of roles, including managing the firm’s real estate investments in central Europe and chief investment officer for the Midwest region in the US.

“We are delighted to welcome John back to the Starwood Capital Group team,” said Jerome Silvey, Starwood’s chief financial officer, in a statement. “John’s broad international real estate experience will be invaluable to our mission of improving and expanding our relationships with investors around the world – both as equity partners and buyers of our stabilized assets. His deep background in asset and portfolio management will also help ensure that we continue to maintain our industry-leading quality of communication with our investors.”

Starwood’s global capital raising and investor relations team also includes managing director Lanhee Yung in Los Angeles and director James Broder in Greenwich, Connecticut, according to the firm’s website. In March, Starwood held a final close on its tenth opportunistic real estate fund, Starwood Global Opportunity Fund X, with a total equity haul of $5.6 billion. It is the firm’s largest fund to date.