A friend who has made a difference in the commercial real estate industry: Michael O'Brien

Michael O’Brien’s career in real estate has spanned nearly 40 years, the vast majority of which was in client relations and marketing. Over the years, Michael established and strengthened many mutually beneficial relationships with institutional clients, prospective clients and the consultant community. He, both personally and through the teams he led, raised substantial capital for a broad range of products and strategies. These have been in various formats including open and closed-end commingled funds, separate accounts, and club funds all across the risk/return spectrum – from core to opportunistic. He was also instrumental in the creation and launch of new investment products and strategies.

Michael successfully built and managed teams of real estate client relations and marketing professionals.  He has held the positions of real estate product manager, real estate marketer, marketing and sales region head, senior real estate client relations manager, client portfolio manager, and head of global real assets client relations. Michael is currently in retirement enjoying his time with friends and family, especially his 10 - year old daughter, and pursuing personal interests.

Michael and I met at the New York City offices of what was then Lend Lease, which had acquired Equitable Life Insurance Company’s real estate investment management business. It was sometime in the late 1990’s.  I had scheduled a meeting with one of his colleagues and she walked me around the office to meet a few other folks – one of those folks was Michael O’Brien.  When we really got to know each other was after Michael joined Joe Azelby’s team at JPMorgan and they became a sponsor of The Institutional Real Estate Letter.  As the lead client service person I interacted with Michael and the team and attended a number of their annual investor conferences.  As the years went on he became a good and trusted friend and voice of reason for me.

Q.  How did you get your start in the commercial real estate industry?

A.  As is the case with many people, I got my start in real estate through happenstance. My first job when I graduated Rutgers (with a BA in Economics) was with the Social Security Administration. While there, I was selected to join a special task force with the GSA (General Services Administration) to help obtain additional office space for the agency in the New York metro area. Through a relationship I formed during my tenure there, I was offered and accepted a position at Equitable Life in its corporate facilities group helping with the various tenant leases for a number of the firm’s businesses across the country. My role was to work with the internal business groups to identify their space requirements, work in concert with our design group to have the space built out to our specifications and negotiate the lease documents. I also sublet excess space as needs changed over time. 

After having worked in this capacity for a couple of years, I decided to pursue the investment side of real estate rather than the user side. Equitable had a strong real estate investment operation and through internal job postings and interviews, I landed a position as an analyst in the investment sales group where I worked on a number of very interesting property sales in NYC. At the same time, I pursued and obtained my MBA from Rutgers University at night with a concentration in marketing and finance, and took advantage of all of the real estate courses offered by the program.

Equitable also had a very strong pension investment division and among the asset classes they offered to their clients was real estate. I came to know the client relations and marketing people in the pension operations area, which led to my next job as the Real Estate Product Manager.  There I worked with the generalist client relations and marketing professionals as the specialist for our real estate offerings to pension funds.

Over time, the real estate group at Equitable became a separate subsidiary with its own dedicated client relations and marketing group. I took on front line client relations and marketing responsibilities with a geographic territory. By this time, I had decided that the client side of the business was the right place for me. In total, I was at Equitable / Lend Lease for 22 years, the last three of which were after Lend Lease had acquired the real estate business from Equitable. The vast majority of that time was on the client side of the business.

In 2000, I joined JPMorgan in their real estate group as a client relations marketing professional working with the JPMorgan generalist client advisors. Shortly after my arrival there, I was asked to take on management of the real estate client relations group. Over the course of my years at JPMorgan, the product offerings greatly expanded from a U.S. real estate focused core and value - add commingled funds and separate accounts platform primarily focused on U.S. pension funds, to a much broader global platform encompassing real estate investments in the U.S., Europe and Asia across the risk spectrum. The investor profile expanded and became more diverse to include U.S. pension funds, endowments and foundations, insurance companies, defined contribution plans, non - U.S. institutions and high net worth investors. Other real assets such as infrastructure were added and the group became a real assets group. The client relations and marketing team expanded as well, as did my management responsibilities, and became global with offices in the U.S., Europe and Asia. This platform growth kept me challenged and provided personal and career growth opportunities.

Q.  What advice would you give to someone who has been in the industry for a short time or a student looking to get his or her start?

A.  Get a sense of the many facets of the real estate business and determine which area is the best fit for you. Speak with people about the part of the business they are in and what they like and don’t like about it. 

Get an appreciation for the various disciplines and skill sets required on the investment and operational side… equity investing, debt investing, development, acquisitions, sales, asset management, leasing, property management, valuation, research, etc.

Get an understanding of the dynamics on the capital side. Where does the capital to fund real estate come from? Why is real estate an attractive asset class? What capital sources are attracted to it and why? What is the range of investing strategies on the risk/reward spectrum? What is important to each investor as they make their investment manager selections? How do they make these decisions…who decides, who influences, are consultants part of the process?

Know what you like to do and what you are good at. Are you more of a transactional person or a relationship person?

Build your knowledge base about the industry. Be active in an industry organization. Always be learning. Embrace change. It happens all the time.

Develop and practice your skill set…technical skills, communication skills, people skills, negotiation skills, management skills, sales skills, relationship skills, networking skills, listening skills…etc. They will help no matter which path you choose.

Q.  As you look back on your career, is there anything you wish you had done differently? If so, what?

A.  Nothing major. As I look back, I am very happy with my career. It was quite a journey from a task force assignment to obtain additional office space in the New York metro area to being a Managing Director at a pre-eminent Global Asset Management firm, leading a global team of real assets client relations professionals. I worked with good people in solid organizations. I helped clients achieve their investment goals and served them well. Could my career have advanced at a quicker pace? Perhaps. Could I have achieved more? Perhaps, but no regrets. If I had a chance for some “do overs”, I would spend more time outside my comfort zone and do so sooner — that is when the pace of personal growth accelerates.

I would also have tapped further into the knowledge, expertise and experience of the many talented people around me throughout my career.  I did gain a great deal from doing so, but with more concerted, ongoing attention to this, I could have benefited further.

Q.  Who have been the major influences on my career? Why? How?

A.  I have had the good fortune to work with many very talented, good people throughout the course of my career. I learned a lot not only from people more experienced and senior to me, but also from peers and the people who reported to me. I also learned from and was influenced by the clients, prospects and consultants and other industry professionals with whom I interacted.

Certainly a major influence on my career was the person who was a key reason behind me going to the client side of the business, Paul Dolinoy. Paul ran the client relations and marketing group that I was part of for many years at Equitable before he took on further senior management responsibilities.  I learned a great deal from Paul about marketing and sales. I learned how to put together and run a team, recognizing the unique talents each person brings to the table and getting the best from everyone.  Watching Paul in action re-enforced with me things I was already aware of such as the importance of proper preparation, strong communication and relationship skills and how to set goals and get results, all while having fun.