Rajen Shastri '11 MBA

Chief Executive Officer/Managing Principal, Akara Partners

Rajen Shastri has spent over 12 years working in senior management roles across the spectrum of the commercial real estate value chain, from being an investment professional at a global real estate institutional investor to acting as a principal at an operator/developer. His vision for Akara partners is to offer investors the ability to participate with a vertically integrated real investment firm, allowing them to capture value from the elimination of the inherent information asymmetry between investors, operators and developers.

 

Prior to founding Akara Partners in 2013, Shastri was a principal, CIO and Co-COO of Campus Acquisitions (“CA”) a developer and operator of student housing assets from 2009 to 2013. While at CA, Shastri led the capitalization and monetization of over $1 billion in student housing assets across the U.S., including the $627 million sale of a portfolio of assets to American Campus Communities (NYSE: ACC) in 2012.

  

Prior to CA, Shastri worked at Syndicated Equities and Jones Lang LaSalle, where he identified and structured commercial real estate investments across asset types both in the U.S and Internationally.

  

Shastri has a BS in business administration from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He serves on the board of the Real Estate Investment Association, Kellogg Alumni Real Estate Board and is a member of the Economic Club of Chicago.