Ex-Credit Suisse placement agent to lead Starwood fundraising

Starwood Capital Group has appointed former Credit Suisse real estate placement agent Christopher Keber to lead its global fundraising efforts.

PERE first revealed news of Keber’s hire in April, when up to 12 professionals from Credit Suisse Real Estate Private Fund Group left the banking platform to join other firms. A majority of the staff left to join New York-based investment bank Greenhill & Co, where former Credit Suisse REPFG head Bill Thompson and co-heads Walter Stackler, Pamela Wright and Fredrik Elwing were building a real estate placement business.

New York-based Keber left at the same time, and is believed to have officially started at Starwood in the middle of May.

In a statement today, Starwood said Keber had been appointed director of global capital raising and investor relations, a new role for the firm. Keber will be responsible for all Starwood capital raising, investor relations and marketing.

Prior to Credit Suisse REPFG, Keber was a managing director in charge of corporate services at Charlotte, North Carolina real estate investment firm Trinity Capital Advisors, prior to which he was national director of business development at architects Little Diversified Architectural Consulting, also in Charlotte.

In 2009, Credit Suisse REPFG raised $3.5 billion of real estate capital, including helping raise €1.3 billion for Orion Capital Manager’s Orion European Real Estate Fund III and $815 million for CLSA Capital Partners’ Fudo Capital II. At the peak, REPFG raised roughly $9 billion of real estate capital.

Also in April, Starwood closed its Starwood Global Opportunity Fund VIII on $1.8 billion and its Starwood Capital Hospitality Fund II on just under $1 billion of capital.