The 20 Rising Stars of Real Estate 2008 - (Page 24) board of directors of American Medical and Life Insurance. 18. the firm’s investment focus to Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and The Netherlands. Under his leadership, the continental European office has sponsored seven investment funds in the retail, office, residential and hotel sectors and invested a total of $4.9 billion. He is a member of the firm’s Global Leadership Team and its Global Executive Committee. In the past year, de Valence and his team developed an investment fund for the hospitality sector and acquired hotel properties and businesses to become the third largest budget hotel group in France. He noted that the European property market is becoming much more consolidated because of more and more pan-European transactions. Indeed, he and his team invested more than $1.9 billion through 18 transactions on behalf of the firm’s panEuropean fund last year. Prior to joining CB Richard Ellis Investors in September 2000, de Valence was director of strategy and investment at GECINA, THIBAULT DE VALENCE Executive Managing Director CB Richard Ellis Investors, Paris Age: 41 Education: University of Paris XI Sceaux (Masters in International Tax); HEC Business School (M.B.A.) Mentors: Olivier Piani, President, GE Real Estate Europe; Robert Zerbst, Chairman, CB Richard Ellis Investors De Valence opened the European office of CB Richard Ellis Investors in Paris in 2000 and developed the platform to expand where he oversaw the sale of 15 office buildings for €122 million and the acquisition of three operations offices with a total value of €137 million. While at the Archon Group - the real estate subsidiary of Goldman Sachs – from July 1996 to October 1998, he first participated in the acquisition of real estate assets totaling approximately €1.5 billion and later oversaw the acquisition and exploitation of a portfolio of office space with a value in excess of €600 million. He said he most admires Goldman for its ability to anticipate market trends and for its complex transactions. Before joining Archon, de Valence worked at Paribas Asset Manager from September 1995 until June 1996. De Valence first got interested in real estate while completing an internship in film, where he enjoyed the project management work.His biggest challenge so far has been running the European business, which he called a success. Over the next 10 years, he said he hopes to stay in investment management and hopefully move up at CB Richard Ellis to become one of the individuals who runs the firm. 19. LANCE WRIGHT Regional Director, Southwest, North America Lending GE Real Estate, Dallas Age: 39 Education: Southern Methodist University (B.B.A. in Finance); University of Texas at Arlington (M.B.A. in Finance) Mentors: Craig Andreen, National Sales Manager, Merrill Lynch Capital; Edward Coco, Senior Managing Director, National Sales, North America Lending, GE Real Estate; Debbie Riley, Managing Director, Real Estate Syndications, GE Real Estate 18 . THIBAULT DE VALENCE 24 REAL ESTATE RISING STARS Wright manages the Southwest region for the North America Lending division, overseeing commercial mortgagebacked security and structured debt MARCH 2008
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