The Role of Real Estate and Alternative Credit in Diversified Portfolios
Learn from speakers active in institutional investing on how those large investors have been
using commercial real estate and alternative credit over the past three decades to diversify
portfolios, whether those asset classes have delivered the benefits first espoused in Harry
Markowitz’ Nobel Prize-winning Modern Portfolio Theory, and what new challenges and
opportunities are surfacing in the COVID era.
Listen in to this educational discussion.
Questions that were addressed:
- How do very low projected fixed income yields (so-called ‘lower for longer’) impact the
demand for, and projected return from, alternative investments? - Where do institutions stand in terms of allocations to alternatives, and what are recent
trends? - How do institutions view short term liquidity in alternative investments—is that a
priority or do they structure that elsewhere in their portfolios? - Where do current valuations in commercial real estate and alternative credit stand
relative to historical norms, and are impacts of COVID fully priced in?
Speakers
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David RupertPresident, Capital Company, LLCDavid Rupert serves as President of Griffin Capital Company, LLC, and is involved in all aspects of the firm’s activities; he has been a member of executive management team at Griffin for more than two decades. Mr. Rupert is a member of the Investment Committee of Griffin Capital Advisor, LLC, and Griffin Capital Credit Advisor, LLC, the respective investment advisors to Griffin Institutional Access® Real Estate Fund, and Griffin Institutional Access® Credit Fund, the firm’s ’40 Act interval funds focused on public and private real estate and global credit. He also serves on the Investment Committee of Griffin American Healthcare REIT IV, Griffin’s partnership with American Healthcare Investors focused on the acquisition and ownership of clinical healthcare real estate. Additionally, Mr. Rupert serves as an officer and member of the Investment Committee of the Griffin Capital Qualified Opportunity Zone Fund, LP.
With over 35 years of commercial real estate and finance experience, Mr. Rupert’s career includes over $9 billion of transaction volume on four continents. His career began in the early 1980’s when he worked for Chemical Bank (now JP Morgan) in the credit analysis, loan workout and commercial lending areas, and continued at investment banking firm Salomon Brothers (now Citi), where for a decade he was a senior member of the real estate finance department; his final responsibilities included heading the firm’s REIT underwriting effort. Between 2008 and 2010 Mr. Rupert co-headed an opportunistic hotel fund in partnership with The Olympia Companies, an 800-employee hotel owner-operator, and served as partner in a private equity firm focused on hotel and multifamily residential development in Eastern Europe.
For over 23 years, Mr. Rupert served on the Real Estate Advisory Committee to the Cornell University endowment fund; from 2011 until mid-June 2019 when Mr. Rupert rotated off the Committee, he served as Co-Chairman of that group. Mr. Rupert is a founding board member of the master’s program in real estate at Cornell and has served as a guest lecturer in graduate-level courses and as a student mentor for over 25 years. He currently serves as president of the 1,500 member Cornell Real Estate Council. Mr. Rupert earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA from Cornell University.
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Russ IvinjackGlobal Head of Fund Management, AonRuss leads Aon’s Fund Management Team. As the leader of Fund Management, Russ manages investment manager research teams in equities, fixed income, liquid alternatives, private equity and debt; the Global Asset Allocation Team and the discretionary client portfolio management teams. Russ also serves as the lead strategist for several of the firm’s largest retainer clients and has advised on over $1 trillion in client assets over the course of his career. He previously led the development of Aon’s alternatives investment capabilities and headed our global manager research teams.
Russ’ recent activities include:Assisted the U.S.’s largest retirement system, a $600 billion public fund defined contribution plan, completed a comprehensive investment program review, which included evaluating the appropriateness of adding new asset classes/fund types and assisting with a strategic investment operations review.
Completed a Benchmarking and Best Practices Review of Mexico’s $180 billion and 55 million participant National Retirement System.
Assisted multiple billion dollar plus clients conduct searches for U.S. equity, international equity, fixed income, and alternative investment managers, including infrastructure, real estate, and private equity.
Worked with Central Bank of Chile to review best practices in securities lending, foreign exchange transactions and custodian services.
Frequent speaker on the topic of institutional investor trends, alternative investments, and the evolution of the investment and investment management consulting industry at industry conferences.
Prior to joining the firm in 1994, he spent nearly two years in SEI Corporation’s performance evaluation area.
Russ holds a B.S. degree in Finance from Northern Illinois University and an M.B.A. degree from DePaul University’s Kellstadt Graduate School of Business.
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Seth BancroftVice President, Credit Product Specialist, Bain Capital