À Bientôt, MIPIM

Here’s to the real estate MBA Class of 2014 knowing much more about international real estate and global capital flow than we did before! The 2013 MIPIM trip was a whirlwind of meetings with diversely talented individuals, panel sessions about the real estate environment across the globe, debrief sessions with Dean François Ortalo-Magné, and the occasional yacht party. Overall, we were able to derive a comprehensive snapshot of the global real estate market in time, and better understand how macroeconomic events steer capital markets within the real estate industry.

Key MIPIM 2013 Themes:

1.       An unprecedented and growing yield gap between core and perceived non-core assets

2.       Institutional investors are seeking managerial control through direct investments

3.       Employers desire real estate experts instead of merely financial engineers

4.       Participants are largely bullish towards Asia & America, and cautious towards Europe

Our special thanks to company representatives during the trip who lent their time for the advancement of our students: Deustche Bank, Park Hill Group, BNP Paribas, Lazard Freres, Real Capital Analytics, IPD, Atlantic Partners, DTZ-UGL, USAA Real Estate Company, Heitman, DLA Piper, Metzler, DREA(m) LLC, Amstar, Bjarke Ingels Group, and all others involved with us during our time there.

One final thank you to the Graaskamp Center for Real Estate, for without it we would not have been able to partake in this wonderful experience. I’m left with one lingering thought: how can I convince the organizers of the need for a 2^nd year MBA consultant on next year’s trip!

Real estate MBA students and faculty pictured with Dean Ortalo-Magné and Rose-Noëlle Pritchard, Conference Manager for Reed MIDEM

Update from MIPIM

The class of 2014 arrived in Cannes, France on Monday to attend MIPIM 2013. My fellow students and I have already immersed ourselves in a variety of conference sessions and networking events with industry experts from around the world.

The Private Equity Real Estate session included a terrific conversation about markets across the globe. As the biggest private equity player, the United States was discussed first and throughout, mainly by Morgan Stanley's Michael Levy. Levy cited strong fundamentals in the United States as a preferred area for investment. AEW Europe's Russell Jewell, head of private equity, stated that his company is raising a United States opportunistic fund, and that his American partners are still nervous about leverage from the recent financial crisis. Francois Trausch, CEO of GE Real Estate's Asia Pacific division, stated that there is a long, deep trend of increasing Asian money into United States and Europe, especially Koreans entering the core/core+ markets at fair value.

Focused on the Eurozone, Jewell is finding value-add assets to turn them into core assets for institutional investors. He cites liquidity as an important factor, and that it must be present when one goes to sell assets. Additionally, investors are searching for real estate practitioners, not financial engineers, and, in the same vein, he very much pictures a pure leverage play as much less preferable than a real estate fundamental play.

Speaking about Asia, Trausch offered that it should not be viewed as one market, and that China will eventually have to clean up distressed assets, but won't today.

As far as the general private equity world, Jewell focuses on capital raising and not fund raising as a more flexible approach, with managerial discretion as essential. Morgan Stanley is focused on an ability to underwrite individual properties within loan pools.

Speaking about debt funds, the speakers were largely in agreement that investors have more and more appetite, but lending is focusing on all of the same assets, with banks also coming for these same opportunities. There are more senior debt funds, but not replacing the bank financing. Mezzanine funds are believed to be going deeper into the capital structure than they probably should.

Jonathan Brown comes to Madison from Washington, DC, where he managed downtown Class A office buildings for Tishman Speyer. Jonathan plans to leverage his prior experience with financial and analytic tools gained during the MBA program to eventually start his own real estate investment firm. 

Reporting from MIPIM: Cautious optimism

The Graaskamp Center was very glad for the opportunity to contribute to MIPIM's official blog. Prof. Erwan Quintin, along with Wisconsin School of Business Dean François Ortalo-Magné, led the delegation of Wisconsin Real Estate MBA students who attended the international event. He summarized his perspective and his outlook on the week's activities in this post.

As seems to be the case every year, strong themes clearly emerged at MIPIM. First and foremost, participants are looking for signs that the crisis days are over and that investors are once again willing to accept some exposure to real estate beyond the safest, core markets. Investors also want to know which opportunistic markets will benefit the most from the recovery, if and when it comes. And they want to know what lessons, if any, the industry has learned from the crisis experience.

The broad sentiment at MIPIM this year is probably best described as “cautious optimism.” As bearish as they sound about their own markets, European investors appear remarkably bullish about U.S. prospects.

He also offered this:

A near consensus also emerged among institutional investors that the basic investment model in real estate must change in the wake of the recent financial crisis. Capital losses of historic magnitude have prompted large investors to question past practices, demand significant changes in how they interact with partners and fund managers. Investors are demanding more control over how their capital gets deployed, more transparency, and are working harder to align incentives throughout the intermediation chain. A new and improved real estate fund model should result from this phenomenon.

To continue reading Prof. Quintin's outlook, visit the MIPIMWorld blog.

Wisconsin also contributed these posts:

• A Political Perspective on the Euro Crisis: Students and faculty from the Wisconsin School of Business are attending MIPIM 2012 this week. Bashar Elayyan reports on his experiences and takeaways from Day 3.
• MIPIM: The Students’ View: The Wisconsin School of Business gears up to cover MIPIM 2012.

For more of Wisconsin's Reporting from MIPIM here on the Wisconsin Real Estate Viewpoint, click on the "MIPIM" tag.

MIPIM: Reflections and Takeaways

The MIPIM experience is hard to describe. I know this because we had several prep meetings prior to the conference, and while they were all very informative and useful, they still didn’t really paint a picture as to how the massive spectacle would really unfold. Much of the time it felt like we were drinking from a fire hydrant, just trying to take in as much as we could. The magnitude of the event, the amount of money put into each “booth”, the sheer volume of exotic cars and multimillion dollar yachts…it’s truly a demonstration of how large a role real estate plays in global wealth.

For a young professional at the forefront of his attempt to break into the industry, I found the opportunity to be immersed in such a vast congregation of knowledge and experience that it was invaluable. Our itinerary included scheduled meetings with industry professionals that are friends of the Real Estate program at UW, as well as two summits (investor and mayor) that allowed the students to sit at round tables and listen in on the conversations being held. I was one of the few students that was lucky enough to attend both summits. At the summits we were tasked with scribing the conversation that occurred at our tables, then submitting a condensed version of our notes to go towards a final MIPIM white paper for that event.

My main take away from the investor summit is that it seems that “passive” investing is out the window. Too many institutional investors got burned in the recession, and it seems that gone are the days of sitting back and trusting the fund manager to execute a define investment strategy. Our separate talk with Choy-Soon Chua of SEB Asset Management confirmed this notion. Chua described that, now possibly more than ever, investors are looking for transparency and track record when choosing a fund manager. This is why Blackstone, with its impeccable history of success, is still able to raise $10 billion in funds while other firms struggle to find cash. This is also an opportunity for smaller, lesser known funds to draw attention. As investors are looking to shake up their portfolio and find a safe haven for their money, smaller funds that are adjusting to cater to the desires of these investors (e.g. transparency, communication, defined strategy) can prove themselves an attractive option.

One thing that surprised me at MIPIM is the presence of cities themselves on display for investors. I was previously under the impression that development projects were presented on a project by project basis in hopes of attracting investors. However, some of the largest cities in the Europe – Paris, London, Munich, Stockholm, Copenhagen – as well as other lesser known cities around the world would have large booth areas that promoted their city as a whole. This concept ties back to my experience at the mayor summit and the discussion of funding of infrastructure investments. What I learned is that there is an endless demand for cash to fund infrastructure development and improvements in major metropolitan areas. The mayors at my table discussed the hardship of prioritizing and allocating the little funds that were available. With this in mind, it makes sense that each city is attempting to portray itself as an ideal opportunity for investment, since the need for cash is not necessarily limited to any single development. One interesting note of differentiation regarding how cities were selling themselves this year, versus in previous years, is that there was a decided shift from "opportunity and growth" to "safety and stability". This goes to reflect the consistent theme of secure and stable returns that resonated throughout the conference.

The overall sentiment at the conference was positive. It was actually surprisingly positive, considering that Europe is in the middle of a recession and that some predict the worst has yet to begin. However, multiple individuals countered this negativity with this statement: “If we weren’t optimistic, we wouldn’t be in this business.” The business, of course, is investment and development in real estate, and the conference was filled with individuals who think that money put into real estate is money well spent. I realized that it’s important to keep this in perspective when listening to speakers and networking with other conference participants. While there is plenty to learn for the sources, they are also inherently biased and might not have the most pragmatic viewpoint on their situation.

Other takeaways:

• Bring sunglasses and comfortable shoes.
• Drink wine. It’s cheaper than water in the South of France.
• Spend time wandering around and taking in all the commotion. Sometimes it can be useful just to witness how professionals from different countries interact and engage with one another.
• Don't get your schedule so booked that you don't have time to wander the booths and strike up conversations organically - sometimes your best leads come when you're not expecting them.
• Don’t be discouraged if you come across someone who isn’t interested in speaking with you. There are thousands of other people at MIPIM who are.
• There is such a thing as a free lunch at MIPIM. You just have to know where to look - try the German booths.
• The bus drivers for the conference have an hour every night for dinner, so you may end up choosing to walk home one night (see first takeaway).
• If you're a student asking participants to fill out a survey, then the Asian and English attendees are your best starting point.
• Speak slowly and clearly when conversing with other participants. English is not the first language of the majority of people there.
• Give it everything you have. The days are busy and the nights are long. Sleep is limited. Be prepared to fight through any lethargy and take advantage of the opportunity.

Andrew Toby is a first-year MBA student in the James A. Graaskamp Center for Real Estate. A CPA from California, Andrew hopes to utilize both his accounting background and the knowledge gained in the MBA program to pursue a career in private equity investments in real estate.

Photo courtesy of MIPIM_World

Reporting from MIPIM: Risk Aversion

Reporting from MIPIM:

François Ortalo-Magné, Albert O. Nicholas Dean of the Wisconsin School of Business, gave the keynote wrap-up address at MIPIM this year. Alongside Mark Roberts, Global Head of Research for RREEF, Ortalo-Magné spoke on the key themes heard at MIPIM during the conference.

One of the key points of Ortalo-Magné's talk was that throughout the conference, a general theme of risk aversion, with a focus on stable returns was consistently heard. Cities that were promoting themselves at MIPIM utilized this message in selling themselves as low-risk investment locales. This was a far cry from the dynamism with which cities had previously marketed themselves at MIPIM.

Levels of risk were a dominant theme of conversations in the MIPIM halls. "What has been striking this year at MIPIM is that major cities are using their low-risk credentials as a selling point to international investors," noted Francois Ortalo-Magne, Albert O. Nicholas Dean of Wisconsin School of Business. "It used to be that the cities would sell themselves as exciting and dynamic markets, now the low-risk card is being played to the maximum."

PR Newswire picked up Ortalo-Magné's comments regarding the nature of how cities are pursuing real estate investment and posted on their website.

For the full presentation from the wrap-up keynote, click here.

Reporting from MIPIM: Optimism with a new vocabulary

Reporting from MIPIM: Final thoughts on the wrap-up keynote presentation to end MIPIM 2012 from one of our students:


Here we are, the final day of MIPIM. It seems that the champagne-and-caviar yacht parties have finally taken a toll on the attendees. The crowds have thinned out, my fellow Badger students and I are exhausted but ready to attend the pièce de résistance, the keynote speech by our rock star dean François Ortalo-Magné.

We had spent the previous day conducting a survey measuring the general sentiment of MIPIM attendees. Those findings coupled with the information we've been hearing and sharing during our daily debriefs, we are looking forward to the culmination of this great effort.

We met at the Le Corbusier hall, named after the famed early 20th century French architect Charles-Edouard Jeanneret. François was joined on stage by Mark Roberts from RREEF Real Estate. Mark presented raw global economic data and projections specific to the real estate sector. The graphs clearly indicate and support the idea that core holdings are a safe haven for those funds that are constantly on the hunt for high yields which is a rarity during challenging economic times.

François then amplified the buzz words we've been hearing all week which are "transparency," "alignment" and "like mindedness" of investors; this type of vocabulary seems to be a new phenomenon here at MIPM. However, they are concepts that make sense in the context of increased joint ventures which are the most secure frameworks for investors where both risk and reward are shared equally. François also highlighted the prominence and importance of sustainability and green design and mentioned the Qatari initiative as a model to be emulated. He echoed the importance of core assets in a portfolio but also suggested the premise that "core periphery assets" are a viable alternative class to hold.

Finally, the data that we compiled was presented, drum roll! It seems that the majority of attendees are more optimistic about the future. There is also little variance of sentiment data from 2011. The majority appear to be open to the idea that non-core assets are a legitimate option. Investors are split down the middle on the question regarding debt markets and whether the current state constitutes an opportunity rather than an impediment.

Today our MIPIM immersion ends, and we pass the torch to the future Graaskamp Center students. My advice to you is to enjoy and exploit every minute of your time here, it is truly a once in a lifetime experience. The day has ended; I take my last stroll on the Boulevard de la Croisette as the sun sets. As if on cue I hear the music of Edith Piaf playing in the background to bid me a proper French farewell. I’m leaving Cannes with a heavy heart because it is so easy to fall in love with the romanticism of this city. Au revoir, Cannes, au revoir. I promise to come back to see you again.

Bashar Elayyan is a first-year MBA student in the James A. Graaskamp Center for Real Estate. As an architect based in Chicago, he was involved in the design and execution of numerous complex large scale projects in the U.S., Mideast and Chinese markets. His career aspirations lie within the domains of REIT management or real estate finance and investment banking.

Reporting from MIPIM: Final wrap-up keynote presentation

Prof. François Ortalo-Magné, Albert O. Nicholas Dean of the Wisconsin School of Business, presented the findings of a survey of participants at MIPIM 2012. He and Mark Roberts, Global Head of Research at RREEF, discussed the major themes and takeaways from the week in Cannes.

For more visit, the MIPIM World blog.

Reporting from MIPIM: Day 3: A Political Perspective on the Euro Crisis

The Wisconsin School of Business is proud to partner with MIPIM World to bring you updates and developments from the show. Bashar Elayyan (MBA '13) reports on the official blog on his experiences and takeaways from Day 3.

Bonjour from Cannes!

Day three of MIPM is nearly over, and it remains a beehive of activity in what is currently the de facto center of the real estate universe. I had more time to walk about the booths today and I can inform you that it is a dazzling carnival of renderings, animations, techie pavilions and shiny models. You are enveloped and bombarded by a mosaic of competing ambitious projects screaming for your attention. Your eyes simply can’t have enough of this feast of monumental aspirations that radiate national pride.

Read more at MIPIM World.

For more coverage check in with us on the Viewpoint or follow @UW_GraaskampCtr on Twitter.

Reporting from MIPIM: Who will "win" in distressed investing in Europe?

Reporting from MIPIM on Wednesday's session on Private Equity: European Distressed Investing

The latest European credit crisis has created an interesting scenario involving apprehensive real estate private equity investors and deleveraging commercial banks. The facts are clear: large European commercial banks will be forced soon to unload billions of dollars of real estate debt from their books due to tightening regulations (Basel, Solvency, etc.) in the near future. There is enormous pent-up demand among investors for these assets, with current fundraising in the tens of billions of dollars.

This would seem to represent a significant opportunity but so far, European banks have been reluctant to shed real estate assets at “fire sale” prices. Will supply loosen up to meet this demand? And what will it take?

In the heat of the crisis, European investors fled to core assets. The investment focus was on gateway cities such as London, Paris, and Frankfurt. Now, many feel core assets in these locations are over-valued, reaching yields as low as 3-4%. So this area does not currently present significant opportunities in Europe.

An interesting side note to this situation is the relative outlook by European vs. U.S. investors. U.S. investors seem to be far more pessimistic on the future of Europe than are European investors. European optimism is based in knowledge of the history of their markets, and confidence in the structures in place to fix the current crisis. So does that mean American investors may miss out on deals on distressed assets?


For more coverage of discussions and developments at MIPIM, check our blog and visit the official MIPIM blog. And follow us on Twitter (@UW_GraaskampCtr) and on Facebook.

Reporting from MIPIM: Day 2 with a Middle Eastern theme

Reporting from MIPIM: First-year students in the Real Estate MBA program at Wisconsin are in Cannes this week attending MIPIM. It's a great opportunity for them to be immersed in the international real estate scene, to see classroom principles in action, and of course to network. One of our students, Bashar Elayyan, shares his experiences from Day 2.

It’s the start of a beautiful sunny day; the air is crisp and heavy with the salty smell of the Mediterranean. The suits are immaculate and sharply pressed, and the caffeine fueled real estate global community converges on the Palais for another exciting eventful day at MIPM.

My day so far has had a Middle Eastern theme as I attended a seminar entitled MENA: Opportunities and Challenges. The Middle East and North Africa remain to be active regions and the hall was packed with professionals eager to hear the state of the real estate sector in this important part of the world. The topic on everyone’s minds is the real estate meltdown in hotspots such as Dubai. Security, in the context of the Arab Spring, was discussed extensively. The lack of a legal framework that regulates and protects parties involved in the sector has also been a challenge to entry. Despite the obstacles facing MENA, it remains to be an attractive region with great potential for investors.

My next stop was to the Qatari pavilion which has generated a lot of buzz this year. Qatar has been dubbed the new Dubai but so far has progressed in a subdued and controlled manner. Doha’s skyline has changed and new cities are emerging out of the sand dunes. I attended a lecture by one of the architects responsible for the design of Lusail City. The topic of preserving national culture and heritage was extensively covered. The world is under threat of turning into a massive homogeneous landscape where national identity is lost in the name of modernity. Lusail City is an example where contemporary design was implemented in a way that conformed to the language and essence of the local culture within a theme of sustainability and green design.

That’s it for today, tomorrow I will be attending a lecture by the former foreign minister of Germany which will cover the state of politics and economics within the European continent.


Bashar Elayyan is a first-year MBA student in the James A. Graaskamp Center for Real Estate. As an architect based in Chicago, he was involved in the design and execution of numerous complex large scale projects in the U.S., Mideast and Chinese markets. His career aspirations lie within the domains of REIT management or real estate finance and investment banking.

Photo courtesy of MIPIM_World

Reporting from MIPIM: A "perfect storm" for investment in the U.S.?

Reporting from MIPIM:

The U.S. is poised at a "perfect storm" of factors aligned to drive investment in the country. Factors including the US dollar which remains the world's default currency, the continued appetite of U.S. businesses for new opportunities and American consumers' continued reign as the top worldwide consumers of goods and services.

On Tuesday afternoon, presenters from the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate (AFIRE), CBRE, the Paramount Group and Metzler Real Estate spoke on what many analysts foresee as an influx of investment capital coming into the U.S. over the next five years. This confluence of factors points to the U.S. as a safe haven.

Primary points from the discussion included the continued dominance (some would say stranglehold?) that the U.S. has as an investment destination and as the best option for capital appreciation. U.S. cities make up three out of the top four cities for global investment: New York, London, Washington DC and Sao Paolo. Additionally, total U.S. transaction volume has reached its 2004 volume, there are downward sloping unemployment numbers in the US, the return on real estate is 500 basis points over that of bonds, and foreign investors and pension funds are currently buying U.S. REITs: More elements of a "perfect storm," even in the face of anticipated uncertainty in market confidence from November's U.S. presidential election.


For more on investment trends for 2012, read more about the survey conducted annually by the Graaskamp Center of members of AFIRE: New York, DC and Then...Sao Paulo? The 5 Top Cities for Investors

And for more coverage of discussions and developments at MIPIM, check our blog and visit the official MIPIM blog.

Reporting from MIPIM: What happens to "brown" properties in a "green" world?

Reporting from MIPIM 2012:

Have we truly turned a corner on sustainable building practices, no longer focused on whether or not it's feasible to embrace these new techniques but shifting instead to the challenges faced by the structures that don't (or can't) go "green"?

It appears that the question of whether sustainable building is a positive net present value investment has been answered and the industry has now turned to the difficult task of large scale implementation. That was the conclusion of this morning's session at MIPIM "Sustainable Property Investment: Does Good Mean Good Value?"

Sustainable buildings have been proven to outperform conventional buildings in a variety of value metrics. Demand is building for standardized data collection and the creation of a "green" index. This would allow for greater transparency regarding green benefits and allow buyers and sellers to make more informed decisions. Although state governments and market observers have sought to gather data about the performance of sustainable buildings, finding a way to share this data has proved to be quite difficult. The ability to provide accurate and applicable data regarding green buildings is the greatest challenge that the field faces in the near future.

The next phase of the transition to sustainability is the functional obsolescence that will accumulate to non-green buildings in the future. These so-called 'brown discounts' were estimated to be substantial and will only grow. Conventional buildings will lose their competitive position and owners of these properties should anticipate major re-positioning or decreases in value. There is no timeline or magnitude of brown discounts yet, but this prospect is certainly one of the most troubling threats (or is it an opportunity?) in real estate today.


For more coverage of discussions and developments at MIPIM, check our blog and visit the official MIPIM blog.

Reporting from MIPIM: Surprising outlook on European retail

The Wisconsin Real Estate Program is participating in MIPIM for the seventh year running. Attending the international property conference is an important dimension to the global perspective that students gain from the program. During the week, we'll be reporting on key takeaways from the panel sessions.

The surprising outlook from the morning session "Markets, malls and main streets: Where is the future of European retail investment?" is that retail is outperforming office and industrial sectors. While panelists admitted that volatility is a factor, with retail more ups-and-downs than office, but they judged it to be less variable than industrial.

Panelists discussed three reasons to invest in this sector-- (1) diversity of cash flow, (2) limited supply due to regulations, (3) high barriers to entry due to the management intensive nature of the sector--with some caveats. Investors should target properties that have proven track records; shopping centers with 100-200 retailers are preferred over a "big box" store. While some investors fear competition from online sales or the risk of cannibalization, they could think of it as a complement to a brick and mortar shop. And for mixed use projects, a specialist in residential development can be an important partner for success.

Given the state of the economy and its fragile recovery, do you share this outlook for retail?


For all of our coverage from MIPIM, click here.

Excitement is building up to the kickoff of MIPIM 2012

Check out our post at the official MIPIM blog where we will be contributing next week during the show.

Excitement is building up to the kickoff of MIPIM 2012. Public sector leaders and private sector investors will converge on Cannes, France, next week to take the industry’s temperature, to get a glimpse into the near future, to ask questions (and hopefully find some answers), and to make valuable connections. Students in the real estate MBA program at the Wisconsin School of Business will be there as well.

This is the seventh year that a delegation of Wisconsin Real Estate MBA students will be attending the show. Students and faculty are leaving today and tomorrow for Cannes, still doing research into the topics that will be discussed and the questions that they want to ask.

For a look back at our previous MIPIM coverage, click on the posts labelled MIPIM. And be sure to visit our blog next week for more reporting on the panel sessions, plus Dean François Ortalo-Magné's remarks on Friday. His keynote is the perfect way to wrap-up the meeting, with the major takeaways and trends. Don't miss it!

Gearing up for MIPIM 2012

The anticipation has reached its pinnacle, and the Class of 2013 has begun to pack our bags for Cannes, France to attend MIPIM 2012 next week. We’re looking forward to attending a variety of conference sessions and networking events with industry experts from around the globe. The event, which will consist of 4,200+ real estate investors and 19,000+ participants coming together at the Palais des Festivals, will surely be a memorable and invaluable experience for our group of aspiring real estate professionals.

Dean François Ortalo-Magné, who has been a prominent MIPIM speaker and attendee for several years, has already been contributing to the MIPIM buzz with his features on the mipim worldblog. Earlier this month, he was put in the spotlight as a “property influencer” and shared his insight on the market in China, touching on topics such as sector trends, aging population, and sustainable development. Watch his interview here.

Just recently, he was featured in “MIPIM past, present and future…Four questions for Dr. François Ortalo-Magné”. Here, eager readers are able to get his input on what has changed in the global real estate market over the course of 2011, and what is to be expected at MIPIM 2012. “The demand for emerging market investments has yet to find a place to settle. Emerging countries have legal pains in setting up the right institutional environment to welcome foreign investments. The battle is still on for the next serious contender”. Read the full blog post here.

During the conference, students will be actively sharing our experiences and reflections each day, so be sure to stayed tuned for continuing coverage on this year’s MIPIM trip. We'll also be contributing to the official MIPIM blog and reporting on Twitter at @UW_GraaskampCtr.


Andrew Toby is a first-year MBA student in the James A. Graaskamp Center for Real Estate. A CPA from California, Andrew hopes to utilize both his accounting background and the knowledge gained in the MBA program to pursue a career in private equity investments in real estate.

Brad Olsen Visits Real Estate Club

Brad Olsen of Atlantic Partners spoke at the Real Estate Club meeting to kick of the spring semester and help prepare the students for the upcoming Real Estate Club job fair. Olsen is a longtime friend of the Real Estate program and has been coming to speak since 1983. In an effort to date his start with the program, he cited an early talk he gave as being the impetus for now retired Senior Lecturer Rod Matthews’ efforts to transform UW into a hub for international real estate. He asked for a show of hands from the 100+ students and staff in attendance as to who possessed a passport. All but three had a passport, whereas at the beginning of Olsen’s relationship with UW, only two individuals had possessed passports. In no uncertain terms, Olsen made it clear how broad-ranging the scope of the program has come.

Olsen did his undergrad work at Princeton and received his JD from Harvard. Following six years in law, he moved into the real estate arena, where he helped Richard Ellis to raise money for investment into real estate funds. In 1994, Olsen got tired of living in Chicago, so he left Richard Ellis and moved to Florida, where he subsequently played 66 rounds of golf in three months. He and his wife eventually landed in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he formed Atlantic Partners.

At Atlantic Partners, Olsen works to link global capital with US real estate. Most recently, he’s been working with USAA to raise money in Europe for a fund that is buying government-leased office buildings. As Olsen describes it, “I’m eHarmony for real estate investors. I’m in the business of relationships.” Olsen spends 70% of his time raising capital and 30% advising European investors on US Assets.

Following his history and current dealings, Olsen began coaching the students on how to best prepare for the upcoming job fair. He first asked the students for a show of hands of who had reviewed his website when they learned that he was coming to speak. He used this to transition into the importance of reviewing the 30+ employers coming to the career fair and honing in on those in which you’re interested. He then advised students to be looking for a connection point with the potential employers. He cited the ability it gives you to differentiate yourself in the eyes of recruiters from other candidates. As a follow up he advised students to always send a thank you email and to not be afraid to follow up periodically, but to be sure that the follow up is substantive as opposed to simply a “tickler” email. He recommended that if a student found an online article which he thought would be of particular interest to a person, to email that article to their contact along with a brief note. Olsen closed by citing the overall strength of the Wisconsin Real Estate Alumni Association, and its spot as one of the top alumni associations in the US. He urged students to join and to utilize that tool.

The next morning, Olsen met with the 1^st year MBA students to discuss strategy for their upcoming visit to the MIPIM conference in Cannes France, at which Dean François Ortalo-Magné will be giving the wrap-up keynote address (click here to see our past coverage of MIPIM). Then the Global Real Estate Masters (GREM) students joined in the second hour and Olsen dialogued on international topics such as German life insurance groups’ movement into investing in real estate debt.

The University of Wisconsin Real Estate program was honored to have Brad Olsen come and invest his time and is perpetually thankful for his selfless commitment to the program.

Jordan Denzer comes to Madison from Dallas, TX (it is often joked that he is one of the international students). Previously, Jordan managed corporate flexible spending accounts, but decided that he wanted to get into real estate development, which initiated the move to Madison. Currently, Jordan is interested in getting into historic redevelopment and/or mixed-use development projects.