Starwood Capital Group, the global private investment giant mainly focused on real estate, has appointed Blackstone executive Jonathan Pollack as president.
Pollack is set to join the executive leadership team at the beginning of 2025. Starwood, the United States group led by chief executive and chairman Barry Sternlicht, said it was preparing for its "next chapter" of growth.
Pollack joins from serving as Blackstone's global head of the Real Estate Credit business, known as BREDS, since 2016. BREDS has $84 billion in assets under management and is a global lender and investor in commercial real estate loans, residential mortgages and securities, including commercial mortgage backed securities, residential mortgage backed securities and real estate corporate debt.
In December 2023, BREDS bought the $17 billion portfolio of Signature Bank commercial mortgages auctioned by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Pollack was also a member of Blackstone's Real Estate Executive Committee and Investment Committee, as well as Blackstone's Operating Committee.
Sternlicht said in a statement that an extensive search had been undertaken. "I have known Jonathan for more than a decade, and he is universally respected across our industry with unparalleled relationships and a track record of success, which will help lead a firm of our scale and ambition. Jonathan's background is global, and he will join all of Starwood's committees, including its executive, investment, disposition and operating committees, which he is expected to lead."
A Blackstone spokesperson said: “We are delighted for Jonathan Pollack and wish him much success in his new role at Starwood Capital."
Not Filling Role
Blackstone added that Pollack's role was not being filled and his duties will be taken over by colleagues: "Tim Johnson has been Global Head of Blackstone Real Estate Debt Strategies since 2021 and will continue in this role. Tim is an immensely talented investor and leader who has been running our Real Estate Debt Business for a decade as both Global Head of BREDS and as Head of BREDS Originations prior to that. He’s supported by a strong and long-serving senior team averaging 10 years of tenure at Blackstone, including Katie Keenan, Global COO of BREDS, and Mike Wiebolt, Global Head of RE Securities.”
Prior to joining Blackstone in 2015, Pollack was the global head of commercial real estate at Deutsche Bank, overseeing the German bank's leading position as a CMBS issuer and a special situations investor following the global financial crisis in 2008.
He also spent eight years in Deutsche Bank's London headquarters, helping to build the European commercial real estate business as the head of capital markets.
Pollack graduated from Northwestern University with a bachelor's degree in economics. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of East Harlem Tutorial Program, a charter school and after school program in New York City.
Jeffrey G. Dishner, president and chief operating officer of Starwood Capital, will remain in his role as president until Pollack joins the firm, at which time he will become vice chairman and head of strategy and business development.
The world's largest private real estate investment firms have been busily pushing through leadership changes recently, though typically promotions have been from within. Earlier this month BlackRock appointed two global co-heads of real estate, the first time the top property position has been held by two people at the world's largest asset manager.
Blackstone's Own Leadership Changes
In January, Blackstone readied for another massive global investment drive, including into real estate, with a series of promotions and leadership changes.
Starwood Capital Group is a private investment firm with a core focus on global real estate. The firm and its affiliates have 16 offices in seven countries around the world, and approximately 4,500 employees. Since its inception in 1991, Starwood Capital Group says it has raised over $70 billion of capital, and has approximately $115 billion of assets under management.
Through a series of comingled opportunity funds and Starwood Real Estate Income Trust, a non-listed REIT, the firm has invested in most areas of real estate on a global basis. Starwood Capital also manages Starwood Property Trust, the largest commercial mortgage real estate investment trust in the United States.
It has deployed over $91 billion of capital since inception and manages a portfolio of $27 billion across debt and equity investments.
The group's SREIT joined its peers last year in posting relatively low fundraising and high investor share redemptions.
But the business continues to make major drives into new, evolving areas of real estate. In January it launched Starwood Digital Ventures, a unit dedicated to its growing data center investment strategy. Also that month it paid around £800 million ($1.02 billion) for 10 Edwardian Hotels located in London.