UNITED STATES - Mercer Investment Consulting has expanded its US real estate team and hired Chad McWhorter as an associate.

McWhorter has spent the last four years working for two real estate companies in the Los Angeles area - Pacific Property Company and The Dewey Group - so the consulting believes he has the expertise it needs in both real estate and financing reporting.

"Our goal with this hire is it will allow us to compete more for new clients in the real estate arena," said Allison Yager, principal and head of real estate operations at Mercer. "In the past we didn't have the staffing that would allow us to do that."

Mercer decided earlier this year to create a US-based real estate team after the potential acquisition of Callan Associates fell through, and has since been hired by a US corporate pension fund client as its real estate consultant

The unnamed corporate pension fund has a real estate portfolio valued at around $825m (€555.9m) and invests in all three key strategies: core, value-added and opportunistic strategies.

As well as looking after key clients, MacWhorter will also be conduct research on commingled funds offered by various real estate managers based in the US.

Mercer is still looking to add another person to its real estate team in London by the end of the year.

Topics