A larger-than-life industry figure like Mike DiRe, senior investment director of private markets at the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, is defined by more than the size of the portfolio he manages and the track record he has built. Beyond the typical facts and figures, here are three essential pieces of information about this year’s PERE Lifetime Achievement Award winner, as shared by the man himself and one of the private real estate executives who know him best.
1 His interest in real estate came early
DiRe knew from a young age that he wanted to work in the industry. His father, Dan DiRe, was an appraiser for the county of Sacramento and also invested in small private real estate transactions with friends. Growing up, the younger DiRe would do cleaning and yard work at some of his father’s properties. When it came time to go to college, he chose to study real estate and finance.
“I just liked the more tangible aspect of real estate over stocks and bonds,” he explains. “When I was talking to peers and looking at other people’s career paths, the real estate industry just seemed more interesting to me,” he says.
2 He is famous for his sense of humor
“I’m quick to make a joke,” DiRe says. Indeed, he made many during his 90-minute interview with PERE. “It is weird talking about yourself as a Lifetime Achievement Award [winner],” he says at one point. “You almost feel like, they do that for the Oscars and stuff like that. But either those people are dead or near dead. And hopefully that’s not me.”
Bill Lindsay, co-founder and senior managing partner at Los Angeles-based manager PCCP, can testify to DiRe’s more playful side: “He’s definitely top-quartile in institutional LP sense of humor. Let me just say, he is the only LP who’s ever played a trick on me. And he just completely bamboozled me. I fell for it, hook, line and sinker. He got me really good. And I just say, what LP does that to a manager?”
Although he declines to provide more details on that particular incident, Lindsay shares an anecdote where DiRe asked to switch name tags with him during a meeting of the industry organization, Pension Real Estate Association.
“He waltzed out of the room unmolested while I got to experience what it was like to appear to be one of the largest real estate investors in the world, in a meeting room filled with managers,” Lindsay recounts. “Many of the wily old veterans in the business figured out what was going on very quickly, but the younger folks in business development couldn’t believe I wasn’t actually Mike DiRe and wouldn’t take no for an answer. It took me an hour to make it to the exit door, fending off pitches from investment managers. I am still plotting my revenge.”
3 He enjoys kicking back with colleagues
DiRe started hosting poker games at his house 15 years ago, inviting CalSTRS’ other directors and playing for $10 or $20 a buy. “Things like that just create camaraderie to get together in a casual way,” he says. “It’s something competitive, because investment people like something competitive, but it was fun and relaxing. And we all still look forward to things like that.”
Although the poker games stopped during covid lockdowns, they are starting back up again. “Five other disciplines generally show up, some people from the legal department show up and it’s just nice to have that type of camaraderie,” he says. “I don’t know if that’s normal in other environments or not. But people look forward to doing small things like that, that are just relaxing and [make] people want to be around each other.”
Don’t miss our Lifetime Achievement Award feature with DiRe, which you can read here.
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