Manulife Bulks Up Real Estate Business with Seven New Hires

Manulife has boosted its staff count by 25% over the past year, including new CIOs and co-heads of research and strategy.

By Shayla Colon | October 25, 2023

Manulife Investment Management has expanded its global real estate business and isn’t done yet, looking to add capabilities beyond its historically core investment style.

The $20.4 billion unit increased its team count by almost 25%, bringing on new hires in roles such as chief investment officers and research and strategy heads during the last six months, said Marc Feliciano, Manulife’s global head of real estate and private markets.

The new hires include Maggie Coleman, who came aboard in July as CIO of real estate equity for North America and global co-head of portfolio management; Jessica Lee, CIO for real estate credit, who came over in September after leaving BentallGreenOak, according to a LinkedIn profile; and Kenny Lam, CIO and head of transactions for real estate equity in the Asia-Pacific region, who returned to Manulife ear-lier this month.

Manulife kickstarted the expansion in 2022, and Feliciano said it has secured most of the talent it sought, with a few more junior hires to make.

“It’s been a huge positive surprise,” Feliciano said. “It has resulted, I think, in a lot of inbound calls [and]… a deeper, broader pipeline.”

Now in the effort’s final phase, Manulife is turning its attention toward executing on the investment thesis, launching new strategies and products, some oriented toward the mar-ket’s ongoing price discovery. Strategies focused on real estate credit, impact investing and niche sectors such as data centers, cold storage and life sciences are in the works via new funds and separate accounts, Feliciano said.

Moreover, the firm aims to keep growing its footprint by establishing more offices around the world in places like Tokyo, Singapore, Sydney and Seoul, where boots on the ground are essential for a real estate investment platform, he added.

Beginning the expansion during a tougher environment for real estate allowed Manulife to get its business organized while investors were still on the sidelines and cautiously com-mitting capital, Feliciano explained.

“Our primary objective was to really develop an entrepreneurial culture focused on portfo-lio construction, risk management and governance, including [diversity, equity and inclu-sion],” he added.

The recent hires also include Jessica Harrison, head of acquisitions for U.S. real estate eq-uity; Victor Calanog and Erin Patterson, who are global co-heads of real estate research and strategy; and Onay Payne, portfolio manager for Manulife’s real estate impact invest-ment platform.

Expanding at a time when other companies are slashing headcounts can involve challenges. But any successful expansion primarily requires execution at the individual property level, said Michael Rosen, CIO at Angeles Investments.

Looking beyond the core real estate market is a strategic move for Manulife, as that market hasn’t been appealing lately, Rosen said. While the risk of moving into new areas might be high, expansion moves have the potential to result in greater returns, which may be of more interest to prospective investors, he explained.

Manulife’s shift to add non-core opportunities also comes amid uncertainty and volatility in the broader economy. Expanding now allows Manulife to still compete and prepare to build products around opportunities created by these “technical market conditions,” Feli-ciano said.

Having the corporate parent’s balance sheet backing Manulife’s real estate growth effort also has been helpful, Feliciano noted.

Few managers are echoing Manulife’s moves this year. Still, if the real estate market ex-periences distress in the near future, as many expect, an opportunity will arise for firms to

take advantage of others’ missteps and snap up assets at an attractive price point, said Ryan Sievers, a partner in the real estate advisory services group at EisnerAmper.

Entering the market or expanding during a time of possible recession in the broader econ-omy can put pressure on managers, he said. But real estate is an incredibly local asset class that can still offer opportunity, he added. And the success of any expansion ultimately de-pends on the strength of the manager behind it, with solid firms typically getting stronger during downturns.

“There’s money out there – it’s cautious and willing to see how this plays out,” Sievers said. “It’s a tough market from an interest rate perspective, evaluation perspective and a fundraising perspective, but there are always those ways that firms can differentiate them-selves and find and create value.”