16 November 2023 8.30am – 10.15am + Add to calendar Breakfast Seminar RSM

AREF Members are invited to a new series organised by the AREF Education & Training Committee. 

The first event in the series will be an 'Introduction to Debt Funds', and will cover: current market conditions; understanding the concepts of investing in debt funds; learn what makes them attractive to investors; and we will also talk about plans for a new debt fund index which AREF and MSCI are launching.

Date:

Thursday 16th November 2023

Timing:

8:30am – networking and coffee & breakfast
9:00am – session starts
10:15am – session finishes. 

Venue:

RSM's Office
25 Farringdon Street
London
EC4A 4AB

Confirmed speakers (see biographies below)

  • Kristina Foster, Fund Manager, Schroders 
  • Christian Janssen, Managing Director and Head of Real Estate Debt for Europe at Nuveen 
  • Paul Richards, Managing Director, AREF 

Cost:

  • AREF Members: This webinar is FREE and open to all staff from AREF Fund, Affiliate, Associate and Investor member firms (view our list of members here). 
  • Trial Members:  Non-members are welcome to join this event for a fee of £100+VAT.  Please email us at info@aref.org.uk if you wish to register.

To Book:

AREF members should click here or the blue button below and log-in to book.


Other events in the series:

The second session, which will take place in the New Year and will look at the difference between equity/debt funds, types of debt, the history, investors needs and viable investment strategies.  There will then be a third session on regulation and risk in debt in the Spring.

Speaker Biographies:

Kristina Foster

Fund Manager, Schroders

Kristina has over 20 years experience in the real estate finance markets and joined Schroders Capital in December 2020 as Fund Manager.

Christian Janssen

Managing Director and Head of Real Estate Debt for Europe, Nuveen Real Estate

Christian is a Managing Director and Head of Real Estate Debt for Europe at Nuveen Real Estate (NRE) and is based in London. 

Christian joined Nuveen in 2013 to launch its European Debt Platform. Prior to joining Nuveen, Christian was a fund manager and co-head of commercial real estate lending at Renshaw Bay, where he established and launched its maiden CRE Debt strategy. Before this, Christian also worked at Barclays Capital for seven years where he set up its European CRE lending, securitisation, syndication, and servicing platform and he spent seven years at Morgan Stanley’s Securitised Product Group in New York and London, and First Boston’s Mortgage Financial Engineering and Project Finance Groups in New York.

Christian has over 30 years of experience in structured finance, real estate debt and investment management. Christian graduated with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Columbia University and an M.B.A. from Yale University.

Paul Richards

Managing Director, AREF

Paul is Managing Director of AREF. Before joining AREF in 2020, Paul was Head of the European Real Estate Boutique within Mercer’s investment consulting business for almost 10 years, previously he was Head of Indirect Real Estate Investment and Global Managed Accounts at LaSalle Investment Management, where he was responsible for managing global portfolios of unlisted real estate funds for clients from Europe and Asia Pacific.

He has over 25 years of real estate experience in investment, corporate finance and research, and has advised investors, occupiers and venture capital companies on property portfolio strategy and on financial structuring, including PFI, senior and mezzanine debt and joint venture arrangements. His employers have included LaSalle Investment Management, Cushman & Wakefield and Henderson Investors.

Before coming into the world of real estate, Paul worked in marketing and market research. He originally studied Physiological Sciences at Lincoln College, Oxford and has a Master of Science in Real Estate from City University Business School, London (Cass Business School).