Christopher Merrill, Co-Founder, President and CEO of Harrison Street Real Estate Capital, LLC

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Mr. Merrill is the Co-Founder, President and CEO of Harrison Street Real Estate Capital a real estate private equity firm founded in 2005 that manages commingled funds and public securities products. Mr. Merrill is also a Member of the Board of Directors and Chairman of the Investment Committee of the Company. The firm has raised numerous opportunistic real estate funds as well as an open-ended core property fund which have raised over $2.0 billion in capital from some of the largest US and European Pension Funds, Corporate Plans, Insurance Companies, Endowments and family offices. The firm’s commingled funds have the unique strategy of investing in Education, Healthcare and Storage related properties throughout the US. As of September 2012, the firm has acquired or has under development over 250 properties worth approximately $3.5B making it one of the largest private equity firms focusing exclusively on these demographically driven segments of the market. In addition, Harrison Street Securities currently manages approximately $500M in REIT securities through distinct long only product offerings for institutional and family offices investors.

Prior to co-founding Harrison Street, Mr. Merrill was a partner and Managing Director of a large U.S. Pension Fund Advisory firm where he developed the firm's presence in Europe, creating the first ever real estate funds exclusively targeting the markets of Central Europe.

Mr. Merrill earned his MBA in the evening from the CASS school of business in London, England and he has a BA in Economics from Roanoke College.