Director Of Research

Company Background:

Rubenstein Partners () is a registered investment adviser and Fund Manager for its clients which are various discretionary fund vehicles currently focused on investments in commercial office building collateral throughout the United States. RP is viewed as one of the top Fund Managers in the U.S. solely focused on the office sector. RP is currently raising its fourth fund and continuously raises capital for its open-ended debt vehicle. RP’s current equity under management is in excess of $1 billion.

General Summary of Position:

RP is seeking to hire a “Director of Research” who will report directly to David Rubenstein, the CEO, as well as Brandon Huffman and Fred Harmeyer, the portfolio managers of the equity and debt platforms, respectively. Other director reports may evolve over time. In addition, RP and the Researcher intend to work on many of the research assignments with Dr. Peter Linneman and his associates () who have a longstanding relationship with RP. The exact nature of this relationship will depend on the background of the Researcher; however, Dr. Linneman will provide significant depth to help broaden the scope and resources in achieving the research objectives.

Although the position will have focus on the standard areas of research existing in real estate companies today, such as market information (i.e. rents, vacancies, etc.), this position will mainly focus on transformative ideas in the office sector (see below). More specifically, there is little research being done by owner operators in a specific sector of real estate as most research is done by the very large multi-sector asset managers and the large brokerage firms. This position will take advantage of a platform solely focused on the largest sector in real estate, offices, it will generate applied research by tracking and seeing “live” how office product is being purchased and operated in today’s environment. 

Detailed Job Specs:

The main areas of focus for the position will be

• Developing transformative ideas related to office real estate investment. "Transformative Ideas" are those that have the potential to transform, rather than merely improve, the status quo of real estate investment, creating competitive advantages for RP as an institutional real estate investor.  All efforts and activities related to the research and development of Transformative Ideas shall be referred to as "R&D."  Examples of research projects include:
• Cyclical Valuation - Real estate investments are currently analyzed using discounted cash flows generated from linear growth assumptions, despite the fact that the real estate market is cyclical.  Talented practitioners implicitly account for the real estate cycle in decision-making by pushing and/or pulling certain assumptions in the linear framework to arrive at a desired conclusion. A project might explore an opportunity to enhance decision-making by considering the cycle explicitly.
• Monte Carlo Valuation (also referred to as Probabilistic or Distributional Valuation) - Real estate investments are currently analyzed deterministically, as if there is only one possible outcome - one set of cash flows, one value, and return.  In reality, you believe a real estate investment represents a distribution of possible outcomes, some more probable than others.  A hypothesis is that superior risk-adjusted returns can be achieved by investing in properties with greater upside than downside – or "positive asymmetry."  We intend to explore an opportunity to better identify these types investments by attempting to model the return distribution explicitly.
• Co-Working – This is an area currently transforming the office sector. RP has been a leader in determining what the eventual impacts will be to the office sector. This research will need to continue so RP can continue to invest with a real view on this area in the context of being able to implement this view to help give its clients a competitive advantage.
• Autonomous Cars – It appears inevitable that this area will occur at some point and have transformative effects on the world as a whole, but in office buildings, specifically, and even more specifically on the parking that is currently being purchased as part of these office buildings. RP’s current research will need to continue in this area, so RP can continue to invest with a real view on this area in the context of being able to implement this view to help give its clients a competitive advantage.
• Providing research for the office markets in which RP invests such that RP understands the statistics in those markets before investing. Ideally, the research is proactive helping RP to focus on where it believes investment is most warranted as opposed to only providing research as needed upon an investment prospect occurring.
• Producing quarterly reports on national data relating to the office sector. In specific, it currently looks at employment data, total and office using jobs (demand), as well as new developments (supply) and how the two of these produce the quarter end national vacancy rates in the office markets. The Researcher would continue, and improve upon, these reports.
• Presentations:

1. Once per quarter, the Researcher would be expected to make a presentation to the whole company on their latest research. This presentation is intended to be an engaging and interactive exhibition on a topic related to your R&D.  In addition to this quarterly presentation, the Researcher will provide a brief ten-minute update at each weekly Staff Meeting.
2. The researcher will provide a thought piece as part of the update letter that is due quarterly for each of RP’s clients.
3. The Researcher will talk to the investors in RP’s clients as needed and requested.
4. The Researcher will present their annual findings to the investors of RP’s clients at its annual meeting.

All specific duties and responsibilities are subject to expansion or other modification from time to time.

Qualifications:

• Very strong educational background including advanced degrees from top universities
• Strong background in economics, finance and/or statistics
• Very analytical with experience in Excel and statistical software
• Experience in Investment analysis