2024 Real Estate Luminaries
Return and Recovery: The Future of the Office
A conversation with
Scott Rechler
CEO and Chairman, RXR
Reception to follow
About Scott Rechler:
Scott Rechler is the CEO and chairman of RXR, an innovative investor, developer, and place-maker committed to applying a customer and community-centered approach to all aspects of its business.
Before starting RXR, Rechler served as the chair and CEO of Reckson Associates, which he helped take public in 1995. Since its founding in 2007, RXR has raised over $10 billion of private equity through a series of funds and separate account vehicles and built an over 500-person, fully-integrated team of professionals, managing over 30 million square feet of commercial properties with a gross asset value of $21.2 billion.
Rechler also served on the Board of American Campus Communities (NASDAQ:ACC) after Reckson took a controlling interest in the company in 1998 and later took the company public in 2004. ACC would grow to become the largest student housing company in the United States and was recently acquired by Blackstone for $13 billion in 2022.
Rechler has held numerous leadership positions at various levels of government, including roles on the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Board of Commissioners as vice chairman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and on the board of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority. From 2017 to 2023, Scott served as the chair of the Regional Plan Association, a not-for-profit organization focused on the quality of life and the economic competitiveness of the New York Tri-State metropolitan area. He also serves as trustee and vice chair of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center, as a member of the Real Estate Board of New York and the national organization, the Real Estate Roundtable, the Board of Trustees at Northwell Health, the Hospital for Special Surgery, the NYU Real Estate Institute Advisory Committee, and the Board of the Drum Major Institute, as well as chair of The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research.
Rechler is a graduate of Clark University and the New York University Schack Institute.
Featuring:
Timothy Johnson, Global Head of Real Estate Debt Strategies at Blackstone
Timothy Johnson is the global head of Blackstone Real Estate Debt Strategies based in New York. Johnson is involved in sourcing, underwriting, negotiating, and structuring debt investments across all asset types and geographies. Before joining Blackstone in 2011, Johnson was a co-founder of BroadPeak Funding, a boutique commercial real estate finance company based in Los Angeles. Prior to founding BroadPeak, Johnson was a vice president in the Lehman Brothers Global Commercial Real Estate Group where he worked from 2002-2008. Johnson received a B.A. in mathematics from the College of the Holy Cross where he graduated cum laude.
Neha Santiago, Head of Real Estate Private Credit and Managing Director of Cerberus Capital Management
Neha Santiago is head of real estate private credit and managing director of Cerberus Capital Management. Prior to joining Cerberus in 2020, Santiago spent eight years at Goldman Sachs, where she was a managing director in the Real Estate Principal Investment Area, investing both in private equity and debt. While at Goldman Sachs, she oversaw the firm’s investment strategy in the Midwest, Texas, and South Florida. Santiago began her real estate investing career in 2003 as a real estate banking analyst at Merrill Lynch and held principal investing positions at Lehman Brothers, Scout Real Estate Capital, and H/2 Capital. Santiago graduated magna cum laude from Cornell University and received an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She is on the board of directors at SparkYouth, an organization supporting emerging youth-development programs in New York City, and a member of the Cornell University Dyson Advisory Council.
Peter Smith, Former Chief Investment Officer of TPG Real Estate Finance
Peter Smith most recently served as the chief investment officer of TPG Real Estate Finance where he established the debt origination platform that closed more than $17 billion in real estate financings. Smith has more than 30 years of commercial debt financing experience including transitional loans, mezzanine, conduit, recapitalizations, and loan portfolio acquisitions. Previously, Smith has held senior positions at Ladder Capital, UBS, and Credit Suisse/First Boston. Smith graduated from the University of Michigan and briefly worked as a substandard public accountant after graduation.
Moderated by:
Jeremy Healey (C’95, P’25,’28), Executive Committee Member and Adjunct Professor at the Steers Center for Global Real Estate
Tweet your questions to @GUSteersCenter or DM us on Instagram @georgetownsteerscenter. We look forward to seeing you at this event!
This event is open to the public.
Accommodation requests related to a disability should be made by April 15th to msb-realestate@georgetown.edu. A good-faith effort will be made to fulfill requests made after April 15th.
——-
Learn more about the recently launched Master of Science in Global Real Assets Program at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business.
Tweet your questions to @GUSteersCenter or DM us on Instagram @georgetownsteerscenter. We look forward to seeing you at this event!
Event Sponsor:
JLL
Cocktail Reception Sponsor:
Sitex Group
This event is open to the public.
Accommodation requests related to a disability should be made by April 15th to msb-realestate@georgetown.edu. A good-faith effort will be made to fulfill requests made after April 15th.
Learn more about the recently launched Master of Science in Global Real Assets Program at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business.