Can you tell us about your career journey and what led you to your current role as CEO of Real Assets at Nuveen? How has leading a $170bn business met or exceeded your expectations?
I started off life after university at Morgan Grenfell in 1989 as a development surveyor, just as the market was undergoing a major price and liquidity crisis. I started my career in some challenging times and saw the downside of investing at the wrong time. This shaped my move onto the investment side, when I joined Henderson Global Investors in 1994 as a portfolio manager for three small UK pension funds. I have worked across different global markets and through a further three cycles which has been invaluable in leading a $170B platform as large and diverse as Nuveen’s.
The breadth of opportunity to work with blue chip clients across real estate, infrastructure and natural capital has meant continuing to evolve how best to enhance what we do for those clients to ensure we deliver the returns their stakeholders require. The most rewarding piece is all the people, connections and memories you build along the way. What is critical to success? Culture!
You’ve led major strategic initiatives, including the Henderson-TIAA integration. What strategic priorities are guiding Nuveen’s Real Estate expansion in Europe, and how does real estate anchor the broader Real Assets platform?
The Henderson-TIAA integration taught me a great deal about scaling a platform without losing what makes it distinctive, which is culture, discipline, local and sector expertise and a long term horizon mindset. Those same principles continue to guild our global expansion today. Our strategic priorities are clear: build depth in markets where we can be an active, hands-on owner and manager; focus capital on sectors with structural demand, such as logistics, living, and necessity-led retail; and ensure sustainability is embedded as a value driver rather than a compliance exercise.
Nuveen is expanding its presence in Europe and the Benelux. What real estate opportunities do you see here, and how do they fit within your vision for growing Nuveen’s real estate footprint in the region?
Europe is attractive because pricing and fundamentals are coming back into alignment. Values have reset meaningfully from the 2022 peak, transaction activity is improving, and pricing has stabilized at levels that can offer long-term investors more compelling entry points and durable income—especially where development pipelines have been constrained.
In the Benelux, the opportunity set fits well with our focus on durable demand and limited new supply. We like high-quality logistics in core locations, living strategies where household formation continues to outpace supply. Sustainability is also central here: energy performance is increasingly tied to tenant demand, liquidity, and long-term value. Our growth vision is disciplined and execution-led. This cycle will reward asset selection and local operating capability more than broad sector calls, so we’re focused on the right assets in the right submarkets, with clear business plans. We see particular opportunities in student housing in undersupplied markets and necessity-led retail formats such as retail parks, where income has proven resilient and new supply is limited. We also see a strong role for real estate debt in a higher-rate environment, where underlying assets are more conservatively valued and lenders are pricing risk more rationally. Across strategies, we intend to be an active owner—driving returns through leasing, targeted capex, and operational improvements rather than relying on market beta.
Within real estate, which sectors or strategies — whether logistics, residential, office, or self storage — do you believe hold the most transformative potential, and why?
The defining feature of this cycle is that asset selection is overtaking sector allocation. Outcomes will be driven less by “being in the right sector” and more by buying the right assets and executing—through leasing, capex discipline, and sustainability upgrades.
Within that framework, logistics remains attractive, but it’s no longer a uniform trade. We focus on prime locations and the right formats—multi-let and light industrial in strong nodes—where demand drivers like nearshoring, e-commerce and defense-related supply chains are most durable.
In living, the long-term demand case remains strong, but success depends on local affordability and regulation. We’re especially constructive on student housing in markets with structural undersupply and sustained international demand.
Retail is also increasingly compelling where it’s necessity-led. Retail parks in particular have been “stress-tested,” face minimal new supply, and are benefiting from a flight to quality as weaker discretionary formats struggle. Across all of this, the most transformative “strategy” is operational excellence: strong asset management, disciplined capex, and a clear plan to meet tightening sustainability standards while improving tenant value and NOI.
Looking ahead, which real estate capabilities or strategies do you believe will be most important to Nuveen’s growth and competitiveness over the next decade?
First, best-in-class asset selection and active management. The next decade will reward thematics selection, underwriting detail, business planning, leasing execution and disciplined capex—more than simply riding a market cycle.
Second, a focus on resilient and growing income. In a higher-for-longer rate environment and with ongoing macro volatility, real estate’s value as an income-producing asset matters most when that income is durable—supported by strong occupancy and necessity-driven demand. Third, leadership in sustainability as a value-creation discipline. The advantage will come from accurately underwriting decarbonization capex and sequencing it intelligently—so sustainability is not just compliance, but a driver of operating performance, tenant demand and liquidity.
As a global real estate investor, what sets the Benelux and broader European real estate market apart from other markets you’ve worked in? What excites you most about the opportunities here right now?
Europe stands out because the correction has been meaningful and, in many places, valuations are now more compelling relative to competing asset classes. At the same time, occupier fundamentals have generally held up well, and liquidity is improving as transaction activity broadens.
What’s most exciting right now is the combination of reset pricing, stabilizing values and improving market function: lenders are active, volumes are recovering, and competition is returning in parts of the market—yet pricing is still below prior-cycle levels. That’s typically a constructive window for long-term investors who stay selective. In the Benelux, the market is also highly transparent, with clear differentiation between prime and secondary assets. Quality is well defined—location, functionality and energy performance—and the market is increasingly pricing those attributes in a straightforward way, which suits a disciplined, execution-focused approach. It’s a market where “quality” is easy to define—location, building functionality, and energy performance—and where the market is increasingly pricing those attributes.
For real estate investment professionals in the Benelux — whether building careers or portfolios — what lessons from your own journey, from development surveyor in 1989 to leading a global real estate platform today, feel most relevant in the current market environment?
Focus on the fundamentals of Real Estate – Supply & Demand. Starting as a development surveyor allowed me to understand real estate from the ground up, the physical building, the local market dynamics and the end tenants. Develop a deep, granular understanding of your assets and markets. Networking is key so you can call on all the people you meet to assist you at some point with greater access to information which is pivotal to delivering outperformance.
How do you approach talent development and building networks within your organisation, particularly for emerging leaders in real estate?
I believe strongly in exposing emerging leaders to real decision-making early, not just training them theoretically, but giving them responsibility and accountability for outcomes. Real estate is a business best learned through experience, so I encourage cross-functional and cross-market exposure wherever possible, so young professionals understand how capital allocation, asset management, and sustainability considerations all interact. I will mention it again, building networks is equally important. I try to create environments where emerging leaders across our global platform can connect with each other, and with senior leadership, so that knowledge and perspective flow both ways. Mentorship, in my experience, works best when it’s a genuine two-way exchange rather than a one-directional relationship. I need it just as much if not more they do in this AI world.
What would you have liked to know earlier at the beginning of your career?
I would have liked to know that patience and long-term thinking are ultimately more valuable than trying to time every market perfectly. Early in my career, like many young professionals, I was focused on short-term wins and immediate results. Over time, I’ve come to appreciate that the best outcomes in real estate come from disciplined, long-term decision-making, buying the right assets, managing them well, and staying committed through cycles. I’d also have valued understanding earlier just how much operational excellence and sustainability would come to define value creation. It’s not something that was as prominent in the conversation in 1989, but it has become central to how we think about performance today!
