On today’s episode, I sit down with Heather Border and Jennifer Stevens, the Co-Founders and Managing Partners of Alliance Global Advisors, a woman-owned consulting firm focused on developing strategic growth solutions for real asset investment managers.

Prior to Alliance, Heather was Managing Director for National Real Estate Advisors and held positions with Hunt Investment Management and The Townsend Group. At those firms, she was responsible for assisting institutional clients in developing investment objectives, strategic planning, underwriting investments, and capital raising. Heather’s professional experience also includes seventeen years within the private and public real estate sector, where she developed, implemented and led Investor Relations platforms.

In 2022, Heather received the GlobeSt. Women of Influence Award and the GlobeSt. Real Estate Forum’s 50 under 40 award.

Heather is an Advisory Board member of Outsourced Research & Capital and was recently asked to participate on PREA’s Governance Committee. 

Prior to Alliance Jennifer’s professional experience includes sixteen years of institutional portfolio management and consulting, strategic and investment planning, real asset investment underwriting, and a specialization in areas including Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and industry best practice.

Jennifer held several positions within The Townsend Group, advising clients with cumulative total plan assets of over $300 billion and approximately $20 billion in Real Estate allocations.  She was a voting member of Townsend’s Advisory Investment Committee, responsible for reviewing and approving due diligence reports and strategies for all advisory clients of the firm.  Her clients included Kaiser Permanente, Los Angeles Fire & Police, Orange County, Los Angeles County, Los Angeles City, San Diego City, Sacramento County, and Queensland Superannuation Plan. 

In 2021, Jennifer received the GlobeSt. Women of Influence Award. In 2022, Jennifer was elected to the PREA Board of Directors and joined PREA's Social Impact Committee.

Alliance Global Advisors launched in 2020. Their mission is to provide GPs with an informed, independent perspective, continued education, and an innovative approach to attracting capital in a competitive market environment. They specialize in offering customized guidance on how to improve organizations, plan for succession, compete for capital, add diversity to existing capital base, develop products and enhance branding in order to meet the evolving needs of the institutional investor.

In today’s conversation, we discuss the 5 pillars global real estate managers should focus on in order to attract and retain investors, noticeable CRE industry changes, and the best way a GP can future-proof their business.

Links:

Alliance Global Advisors

Jennifer on LinkedIn

Heather on LinkedIn

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Connect with Brandon Sedloff on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bsedloff/

Topics:

(00:03:19) - Introducing Jennifer and Heather and their founding of Alliance Global Advisors

(00:06:57) - What does a typical client relationship look like with Alliance?

(00:13:43) - What are some of the changes you’ve observed in the industry managers need to be paying attention to?

(00:18:31) - How do you help advise folks looking for institutional capital to develop an attractive product?

(00:25:16) - What does the Investment Manager of the future look like?

(00:31:32) - How do you get the industry to become more transparent with LPs?

(00:35:03) - What are some examples of how relationships between Alliance and Gps evolved?

(00:40:06) - What is your position on ESG and what trends are you seeing around the industry?

(00:43:48) - What is your advice to GPs who have to navigate whether a company takes ESG seriously or not?