NEW YORK & LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Peter Lewis has joined global professional services company Towers Watson (NYSE, NASDAQ: TW) as the head of its U.S. real estate investment manager research team. The global real estate research team now has 21 people in nine countries. Mr. Lewis, a senior investment consultant based in Towers Watson’s New York office, will lead a team of five researchers that analyze U.S. real estate investment strategies for the company’s clients.
Mr. Lewis, who has an MBA from New York University and a Masters in Architecture from Harvard, joins from Liberty Mutual Group where he was a Senior Investment Officer directing its real estate portfolio. Previous roles include Director, Real Estate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Investment Management Company. He has over 20 years of experience as a real estate investor, is a Registered Architect, a former board member of the Pension Real Estate Association and has advised on over 75 U.S. and international real estate funds, totalling commitments exceeding $2 billion.
Craig Baker, global head of research at Towers Watson Investment, said: “We are delighted to welcome Peter to Towers Watson as a very experienced real estate and real asset investor who is familiar with a wide variety of investment opportunities and structures. As well as leading our U.S. real estate efforts, Peter is a very valuable addition to our wider real estate team, which is one of the largest and most globally diversified real estate teams around. Real estate investment requires local expertise and our team, being represented in nine countries, is well equipped to exploit these local insights when building real estate portfolios for our clients.”
Towers Watson’s real estate team, which is represented in Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, the Netherlands, the UK and the U.S., researches all real estate strategies from core funds and separate account direct mandates to opportunistic strategies. Some of the real estate ideas which the company has taken to clients recently include recapitalisation of a real estate fund on beneficial terms; investments in Asian real estate; and investment in secure income real estate strategies with inflation-linked protection.
Notes to editors
Towers Watson has a global research team of over 180 associates, one of the largest independent teams of investment researchers in the world. The team covers a wide range of investment opportunities including traditional mandates such as equities and bonds; and alternative mandates such as real estate, hedge funds, private equity, infrastructure, timber and commodities.
Real estate research is part of Towers Watson’s specialist private markets research team which comprises 35 investment professionals and has assets under advice of approximately $40 billion. In addition to advising clients on holistic private markets portfolios, this team researches direct private equity, real estate, infrastructure and distressed strategies.
Towers Watson Investment
Towers Watson Investment is focused on creating financial value for the world’s leading institutional investors through its expertise in risk assessment, strategic asset allocation and investment manager selection. It is a division of Towers Watson’s Risk and Financial Services business, has over 650 associates worldwide and assets under advisory of over US$ 2.1 trillion.
About Towers Watson
Towers Watson (NYSE, NASDAQ: TW) is a leading global professional services company that helps organisations improve performance through effective people, risk and financial management. The company offers solutions in the areas of employee benefits, talent management, rewards, and risk and capital management. Towers Watson has 14,000 associates around the world and is located on the web at www.towerswatson.com.