The commercial real estate industry is often criticized for being dominated by men, but CBRE (CBRE) Investment Management (CBRE IM), a global investment firm with $142.5 billion worth of assets under management, just appointed two women to senior leadership roles.
Last month, Liz Troni was appointed to lead CBRE IM’s U.S. core real estate strategy as portfolio manager, while Lucy Fletcher, formerly of QuadReal Property Group, was tapped to succeed Troni as lead portfolio manager for the firm’s global open-end core-plus strategy.
Troni, who has spent five years with the firm, called the chance to move from one division to another and lead two of the firm’s flagship funds from the inside “a terrific opportunity across the market.”
“The role has been in transition since the start of September, about four weeks now, technically speaking, and it’s been a great opportunity for me in every sense,” she told CO. “I’ve spent a good chunk of my adult life in London, and am now back in New York, and can use that experience for products and can leverage that for the business.”
Fletcher most recently served as global head of portfolio management of QuadReal Property Group, where she managed equity and debt across a global real estate investment strategy.
She said that her decision to return to CBRE — where she began her CRE career 25 years ago — had to do with the familiarity as much as it had to do with the firm’s worldwide reach.
“For me the opportunity to come and join the organization is driven by basically the global reach for investments that the platform provides, because we have boots on ground in each region,” Fletcher said. “What CBRE Investment Management has that sets it apart from its peers is a really deep data and analytics research group that provides unique insights that drive the strategy which we’re deploying to.”
CBRE IM operates in 20 countries around the world and is an independently operated affiliate of CBRE Group, the global real estate brokerage.
Troni will primarily be responsible for the U.S. Core Partners fund, the firm’s $10 billion flagship fund within the U.S. Open-End Diversified Core Equity (ODCE) index, the point of entry for most state plans, pension funds and institutional investors into CRE investing.
Troni said the fund, which launched in 2013, has smaller weights invested in office and retail and larger weights invested into asset classes such as residential, logistics and healthcare.
“That’s been its defining feature within its peer set. It was a next-generational strategy that didn’t hold that legacy, traditional sector risk,” she told CO. “The fund has been top performer across all time periods within its peer set, and it looks to stay at the forefront of portfolio design and construction within [the ODCE index].”
As the head of the firm’s global open-end core-plus strategy, Fletcher said that her investment strategy will be governed by diligence and research rather than gut instinct.
“A lot of people invest on gut instinct, but having sound data driven research and analytics is really important,” she said. “For me, collaboration across regions is critical, and we have regional teams, investment teams that are working with me and our management team to identify opportunities.”
Troni said that CBRE IM’s decision to place two women at the head of its investment strategy reflects the firm’s commitment to a diversity that it has voiced to its employees.
“I think it’s a strong commitment and brave commitment from the firm to endorse their diversity and inclusion agenda in such a direct manner,” she said. “We receive accolades all the time in the U.S. market for broad representation of females in leadership positions.”
Brian Pascus can be reached at bpascus@commercialobserver.com