CBRE Group, Inc. is the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firm, with 2019 revenues of $23.9 billion and more than 100,000 employees (excluding affiliate offices). CBRE has been included on the Fortune 500 since 2008, ranking #128 in 2020. It also has been voted the industry’s top brand by the Lipsey Company for 19 consecutive years, and has been named one of Fortune’s “Most Admired Companies” for eight years in a row, including being ranked number one in the real estate sector in 2020, for the second consecutive year. Its shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “CBRE.”
CBRE offers a broad range of integrated services, including facilities, transaction and project management; property management; investment management; appraisal and valuation; property leasing; strategic consulting; property sales; mortgage services and development services.
CBRE Global Investors, combined with CBRE Clarion Securities and CBRE Caledon, is one of the world’s leading real asset investment managers with $114.5 billion in assets under management.
Built up over more than 40 years, our unparalleled platform is focused on real assets, giving our institutional clients access to real estate and infrastructure in the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific. Our clients benefit from a complete range of investment solutions including equity and debt, direct and indirect, and listed and unlisted strategies.
Trammell Crow Company, founded in Dallas, Texas in 1948, is one of the nation’s oldest and most prolific developers of, and investors in, commercial real estate.The CBRE Global Investors and Trammell Crow Company platforms make up the Real Estate Investments division of CBRE Group.
The Real Estate Investments division is led by
Mike Lafitte, Global CEO, Real Estate Investments.
Regularly released content on the state of the real estate and infrastructure industry are produced by our subject matter experts and shared on their blogs. A selection of them can be found below.
CBRE Clarion’s Global Real Estate Income Strategy is managed with the goal of delivering a consistent and high-level of dividend income and potential for capital appreciation. With an emphasis on property sectors and companies with above average yield and growth prospects, this strategy provides clients with globally diversified exposure to income-producing real estate securities including Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and preferred securities issued by U.S. equity REITs.
Our global real estate income strategy invests primarily in the developed markets of North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific but may also make opportunistic investments in emerging market economies. The portfolio provides exposure to the range of property sectors including office, retail, industrial, apartments, healthcare, hotels, and other emerging property sectors including student housing and data centers.
September 2004
80% FTSE EPRA NAREIT Developed Index
20% MSCI U.S. REIT Preferred Index
Ritson Ferguson
Co-CIO – Listed Real Assets Strategies
View Bio
Ritson Ferguson
Co-CIO – Listed Real Assets Strategies
Ritson Ferguson is Co-CIO of the firm’s real assets securities division, CBRE Clarion Securities. He is a member of the CBRE Global Investors Executive Committee and Global Investment Committee and the CBRE Clarion and CBRE Caledon boards.
Between 2015 and 2019, Mr. Ferguson served in global roles for CBRE Global Investors, first as Global CIO and then as Global CEO. During his tenure as Global CEO of the firm, Mr. Ferguson accomplished several key initiatives, including the acquisition of Caledon Capital Management, now CBRE Caledon.
Prior to joining CBRE Global Investors, Mr. Ferguson was on the global management committee of ING Real Estate Investment Management. He was also one of the founding principals who formed the predecessor entity to CBRE Clarion Securities. Earlier in his real estate career, Mr. Ferguson worked at K.S. Sweet Associates and Trammell Crow Company. He was also a consultant at Bain & Company and a Captain in the U.S. Air Force. Mr. Ferguson began his real estate career in 1986.
Mr. Ferguson earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Duke University and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. He is active in many real estate organizations (including PREA, EPRA, APREA and NAREIT) and is a CFA charter holder.
Joseph Smith
Co-CIO – Listed Real Assets Strategies
View Bio
Joseph Smith
Co-CIO – Listed Real Assets Strategies
Joseph Smith is Co-CIO of the firm’s real assets securities division, CBRE Clarion Securities. He is a member of the CBRE Global Investors Executive Committee and Global Investment Committee. Mr. Smith is the chair of the firm’s Management Committee and is co-leader of the U.S. real estate securities team.
Mr. Smith joined CBRE Clarion Securities’ predecessor firm in 1997. Prior to that, Mr. Smith worked in various management and analyst positions in the real estate industry including positions at Alex Brown & Sons, PaineWebber and Radnor Advisors. Mr. Smith began his career in the real estate industry in 1990.
Mr. Smith earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Villanova University and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Pennsylvania. He is active in the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts (NAREIT) and is a CFA charter holder.
Kenneth S. Weinberg, CFA
Senior Global Portfolio Manager, CBRE Clarion
View Bio
Kenneth S. Weinberg, CFA
Senior Global Portfolio Manager, CBRE Clarion
Kenneth Weinberg is a Senior Global Portfolio Manager, a member of CBRE Clarion Securities’ Global Investment Policy Committee, and co-leader of the U.S. real estate securities research team.
Mr. Weinberg joined CBRE Clarion Securities’ predecessor firm in 2004. Prior to that, Mr. Weinberg worked in various management and analyst positions in the real estate industry including positions with Legg Mason Wood Walker, Inc. and Prudential Real Estate Investors. Mr. Weinberg has over 27 years of real estate investment management experience.
Mr. Weinberg earned an MBA from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and a Bachelor of Science from Duke University. He is active in NAREIT, and is a member of the CFA Society of Philadelphia, and the CFA Institute.
David Leggette, CAIA
Principal, Head of Marketing
[email protected]