Jeff’s
bio from the LaSalle Investment Management website:
Jeff Jacobson is CEO of LaSalle Investment
Management, responsible for a 730-person team managing investments in both
private and public real estate across all major markets in Europe, North
America and Asia Pacific. Jeff is a
member of JLL’s Global Executive Board, a member of the JLL Co-Investment
Capital Allocation Committee and sits on LaSalle’s Investment Committees in all
three regions.
Jeff is located in LaSalle’s Chicago office,
having worked in LaSalle’s London and Singapore offices during his career.
Prior to his appointment as Global CEO in January 2007, Jeff was Regional CEO
for LaSalle’s European operation, based in London, where he was responsible for
all aspects of the European business.
Jeff has over 30 years of property investment and transactions experience
across the globe.
Jeff holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics
and a Master’s degree from Stanford University.
He served on the Management Board of INREV (European Association for
Investors in Non-Listed Real Estate Vehicles), and is a member of PREA (Pension
Real Estate Association) and AFIRE (Association of Foreign Investors in Real
Estate).
Jeff
and I met around 2004 when I started spending quite a bit of time in Europe
launching The Institutional Real Estate Letter. We’d see each other at various industry events. Jeff is one of the friendliest guys in the
industry. He always has a smile and a
positive attitude. One great experience
we shared was at MIPIM (the huge annual real estate trade show in Cannes,
France). An industry friend, Marinus
Dijkmann, was involved with MIPIM on creating their first live TV event during
the conference. Marinus suggested that I be the co-host of that show (along
with, I believe, a journalist from Bloomberg). I was allowed to choose the panel. Jeff Jacobson (LaSalle), Ray Torto (Torto Wheaton Research), Bill Krauch
(Clarion Partners) and Johan van der Ende (PGGM). Boy, what a line-up! We had a great time!
Q. How
did you get your start in commercial real estate?
A. I didn’t plan on going into commercial real
estate coming out of school. I grew up
in a small Midwestern town and wanted to be a commodities trader. I’d worked for grain companies over the
summers. I also interned on the Chicago Board of Trade. At the same time as I was being pulled by my
Midwestern agricultural roots, I wanted to get to New York. It was the 80’s,
when investment banking was taking off, New York was glamorous and many of my
college friends were going there. I was trying to make up my mind what to do.
As
a happy compromise, I went to work for Louis Dreyfus Corporation, a large,
family-owned business, which was one of the five big global grain-trading
companies. I worked for William Louis-Dreyfus
who was the Chairman. I was his assistant – a glorified bag carrier right out
of school, but it was in New York City. I had my own office on the 56th
floor of The Chrysler Building, probably the nicest office I’ve had in my
career.
Over
time, each generation expanded the family business and William’s passion was
real estate. The company was investing
in and developing real estate in Paris, Montreal, Toronto, New York and
Washington, D.C., among other cities. Being around William and his real estate
team, I naturally got pulled into it.
One day I was told, “We own a real estate project in Montreal. Go and look at it and figure out how to
refinance it.” I was working for both
William and the CFO, Ernie Steiner. From
this beginning, I ended up spending more time with real estate and decided I
really liked it and wanted to go into the field.
After
two years in my role, I approached William and Ernie Steiner and told them that
I intended to commit to a career in real estate. I also told them that I wanted to move back
to the Midwest, more specifically Chicago, with my then fiancée and now my
wife, Marian, who had just been accepted to business school in Chicago. After a
long discussion they said, “If your heart is truly set on real estate, there’s
only one firm you should talk to.” At that time it was called LaSalle
Partners. The founder of LaSalle
Partners, Bill Sanders, one of the ultimate legends in real estate, went to
college at Cornell with both Ernie and Jeffrey Sussman, Louis Dreyfus’s Head of
Real Estate. They called Bill on my behalf.
The next time Bill was in New York, he met with me and that was how I
got started at LaSalle.
Q. What advice would you give someone who has been in the commercial real estate industry a short time or
a student looking to get his or her start?
A. Two things to focus on early in year career:
being around bright and inspiring people and getting into the flow of
activity. Ultimately, it is about
learning, developing relationships and credibility and gaining experience. It
doesn’t matter so much what the specifics are of what you do, but if you are
around really good people and organizations that are doing interesting things good
things will happen. You want to be
around people you respect and that you can learn from. It is valuable to have both talented and experienced
mentors and a great contemporary peer group. I look at how much I enjoyed my
early years of working with an extraordinary group of people at LaSalle
Partners and the long lasting friendships and business relationships we
developed.
Early
on it’s about the experience, the people you meet and the things you see. And
it really is a small world. Make sure your reputation and how you handle
yourself is at the highest level because that sticks with you. People in our
industry respect those who are good, honest and intelligent. Remember: It’s their name on the line when
they’re recommending someone for a job or an assignment.
Q. As
you look back on your career, is there anything you wished you had done
differently? If so, what?
A. One of the transformative things for me was
going overseas. In 2000, I moved with my
young family for what was initially going to be a three year assignment working
in London. We ended up staying in
England for 10 years. This incredible
experience changed not just my professional life but also my personal
life. I had an opportunity to see the
world from a different perspective which broadened my horizons. Similarly, our
kids grew up overseas which gave them a much better sense of the world and its
variety of people and cultures. For our
family, it was a really positive experience.
That experience happened 15 plus years into my
career. Until then, I was narrower in my
thinking and less open to out of the box opportunities. I wish, earlier on, I had
said, “Wow, let’s try something really different. Something that’s out of my comfort
zone”. A lot of what’s happened in my
career fell into my lap in ways that I could not have planned for and usually
when I tried something very different Opportunities arise in unusual ways and
at unusual times. Life is that way too.
Q. Who
have been major influences in your career? Why?
A. I’d start by going back to Louis Dreyfus
Company. I was close with the CFO, Ernie
Steiner, because I worked on a variety of projects with him. He was one of the smartest people I’ve ever
met. He had a wide range of projects he could handle at the same time. These could range from a soybean plant in
Brazil to real estate in New York City.
Ernie taught me a lot. He was a great guy. One thing he taught me early
on: I was working with outside lawyers and I took for granted that because they
were at a famous law firm (with a high retainer fee), that they must be right
and I shouldn’t question them. He said,
“Don’t ever do that. Don’t assume just
because someone is a supposed expert that you can completely rely on him or
her. If you have an instinct about something, you need to question and
challenge them until you are satisfied they have the right answer.” That was a
great learning.
Bill
Sanders - talk about a visionary and seeing the world how it’s going to be.
Bill was a great recruiter and motivator of people. It was incredible being
around him and being part of the organizations he built at LaSalle Partners and
Security Capital Group.
And
further on in my career, Lynn Thurber, who was my predecessor. Lynn took an incredible risk in having me go
over to Europe when I’d done almost nothing outside of the U.S., I didn’t speak
any other languages and I hadn't managed a lot of people at the time. I was
more of an investment person, a deal guy.
When Lynn said, “I think it’ll work. I am confident that you’re the
right person” it was a huge vote of confidence.
She gave me the necessary support and was there to talk through difficult
issues. She also gave me ‘Tough Love’
when it was needed even though I didn’t
always appreciate it at the time. When
she stepped down as Global CEO, Lynn handled the transition in a manner that
was incredible – both for me personally and for our organization. I don’t believe it could have been managed
any better.
