On January 29th, the Steers Center welcomed Rich Hill, Senior Managing Director, Global Head of Real Estate Research & Strategy, Principal Asset Management, to the Hilltop for the most recent addition of the McBride Lecture Series. With his wife and oldest son who will be attending Georgetown next year in attendance, Rich discussed his time at Georgetown, where he was a member of the track and field team and where he met his wife. Following graduation, Rich started his career at Banc of America Securities in their Interest Rate Derivatives Group, moved to RBS Greenwich Capital, Morgan Stanley, Cohen & Steers and finally Principal Asset Management, a top 10 global real estate manager, that has over $105 billion in real estate assets under management, where Rich is the new Global Head of Real Estate Research and Strategy. 

Rich described his firm’s back to basics investment approach for commercial real estate investing and that after two years of price resets, the commercial real estate recovery is now underway. He told the students in attendance that with a recovery underway, generational wealth could be created by savvy investors and that now could be an opportune time for our students to be starting their careers in real estate. Rich singled out digital infrastructure, data centers and  residential as high conviction sectors that Principal is currently focused on.

Rich ended the night with his eight words of wisdom and described how his time at Georgetown truly changed his life. Among other things, Rich told the students to be authentic, to be humble, to be intellectually curious, and above all find people who believe in you, as they will push you to be better than you thought possible.

The event concluded with a Q&A session and a reception where Hill engaged with Georgetown students.