American German Business Club

Berlin e.V.

Personal Information | Introduction

My Background: I am a 71-year old German-American male currently living about 8 months a year in Winter Park, Florida, and the other 4 months in Berlin, where my youngest son’s family (2 grandchildren) resides. Having lived approximately half of my life in Germany and in the US, I am bilingual in both languages. I also have dual citizenship. Education:  Dual masters degrees in business and in economics from Justus-Liebig University Giessen, Germany (1978) and from Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS (1979) Career: The last 38 years I have worked in international institutional real estate investing. In 2000, I was one of 3 co-founders of GLL Real Estate Partners, Munich. We have grown this startup company into an industry leading, Germany-based real estate investment management firm, with 130+ employees and offices in Australia, Asia, Eastern and Western Europe, and in North and South America. In February of 2018 the firm merged with Australian Investment Banking giant Macquarie (at $300 billion in Assets Under Management, much bigger than GLL, which has “only” $8 billion in AuM). Going forward Macquarie will perform all of its global real estate fund management operations under the name of GLL Real Estate Partners.  Here is the joint press release announcing the “merger”. I have built the North American operating platform for GLL with 35 employees in offices in NY, SF (Walnut Creek) and in Orlando. As the oldest of the 3 co-founders, I am effectively retired from the day-to-day operating responsibilities of the firm. I am, however, not ready yet to play golf all-day long. Starting in 2015 I have developed cutting-edge real estate investment courses for:

• Georgetown University (which I consider my academic home)
• Rollins College (#1 MBA program in Florida and voted America’s most beautiful campus 2 years in a row; my home is one mile away from campus)
• University of Applied Science Aschaffenburg, 30 miles southeast of Frankfurt

I am the recipient of Georgetown University’s 2017 Outstanding Faculty Award. With 600+ enrolled masters degree students GU’s real estate program is one of the largest in the country. Each year only 1 out of 70 faculty members is honored with this award. I received the award in my second year of teaching at GU.