The 20 Rising Stars of Real Estate 2008 - (Page 15) SIMON HAMPTON Managing Director, Real Estate, Gaming & Lodging Investment Banking, EMEA Banc of America Securities, London Age: 35 Education: Haywards Heath College (Course Work in History and Computer Science) Mentors: David Schinasi, Managing Director, Real Estate Investment Banking Group, Wachovia Securities; Greg Wolkom, Chief Financial Officer, Kimpton Hotels Hampton is responsible for Bank of America’s corporate and investment banking activities across the real estate, real estate investment trusts, lodging, gaming, leisure and homebuilding sectors in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. He joined the bank in March 1997 in European corporate finance and assumed his current role in 2001. Hampton has been one of the architects of Bank of America’s expansion in Europe. “My main challenge over the past five to six years has been to instigate, plan and build a substantial real estate business for Bank of America internationally,” Hampton said. “We started with two people and small revenues and have successfully built a holistic business comprising debt, equity and M&A, growing to a team of more than 20 people in London.” Recently, Hamilton worked on a €500 million senior note offering as joint book manager for ProLogis European Properties and as underwriter for a €350 million acquisition financing for Host Hotels & Resorts. He also advised on Starwood Capital’s acquisition of 11 Hilton Hotels in the United Kingdom. MARCH 2008 6. Hampton calls his career progression his greatest accomplishment. “I have worked hard over a long period of time and have helped build and run a substantial business within one of the successful, respected and clientfocused banking institutions in the world,” he said. “To have been part of this success and to have achieved some seniority and recognition along the way makes me constantly proud.” Prior to Bank of America, he spent six years at NatWest Markets. In 10 years, Hampton sees himself as a “well-respected elder statesman in investment banking, probably still within real estate as it is in my blood.” He cautioned against making longterm predictions for the market, but he believes real estate will remain a significant asset class. “I am not overconfident in predicting specific market performance over the next 10 months, much less 10 years,” he said. “That said, I am very confident that real estate will remain a major asset class. I believe that asset allocation towards real estate also will have grown substantially and that the lodging and gaming subsectors will have become fully intertwined.” 7. JEFF HANSON this year and offers high-net-worth investors a comprehensive program to build or expand their commercial real estate portfolio. Hanson noted that, in just a month and a half, the program has secured $200 million in equity commitments, of which about 80% has been deployed through asset acquisitions. He attributed the program’s success so far to both the firm’s ability to realize new ventures and to the alternatives it provides high-networth investors. The wealth management program is a non-traditional fund concept, in which the fund manager does not share in the value of the fund over time, other than collecting a fee.“We offer a strategic asset management function that delivers passivity to investors,” Hanson said. “We’re not sharing a significant portion of the upside.” At Grubb & Ellis Realty Investors, Hanson is responsible for a full range of commercial real estate investment programs, including tenant-in-common programs for investors structuring tax-deferred exchanges under Section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code, non-traded public real estate investment trusts, multi-member limited liability companies and institutional investments. He also is a member of several trade organizations, including the National Association of Real Estate REAL ESTATE RISING STARS 15 7. JEFF HANSON President and Chief Investment Officer Grubb & Ellis Realty Investors, Santa Ana, Calif. Age: 37 Education: University of Southern California (B.A. in Business) Mentors: Scott Peters, Chief Executive Officer, Grubb & Ellis; Kevin Shannon, Vice Chairman, Grubb & Ellis; Anthony Thompson, Founder and Former Chairman, Grubb & Ellis Hanson founded and oversees Grubb & Ellis Realty Investors’ wealth management program, which launched
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