Marc Gilbard - Chief Executive Officer
Marc qualified as a Chartered Surveyor, having studied for a BSc in Estate Management. He became a top rated real estate & equity analyst and advisor between 1989 and 1995 (European Extel Survey and the International Investor Survey) prior to joining Moorfield Group. Marc is a Policy Committee Member of the British Property Federation (BPF), a Member of the Property Advisory Group to the Bank of England, a liaison on real estate to the British Venture Capital Association (BVCA), a Member of the Investment Property Forum (IPF) and a Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). He has also sat on the panel that advises the RICS on the investment of its own capital, together with having various advisory roles for the RICS on property equity and debt securitisation. In October 2011 the Howard de Walden Estate (www.hdwe.co.uk) appointed Marc to its Board as a Non-Executive Director.
Marc first worked for Gerald Eve & Company where he had a variety of responsibilities including valuation, planning, rent reviews, rating and taxation. He also worked at Edward Erdman (now Colliers International), where he specialised in investment and development finance, being promoted to Associate Director in 1987.
Having formed a financial services company for Edward Erdman, of which he was a Director, one of Marc's responsibilities was to oversee all property financing initiatives and innovations (equity and debt securitisation). This resulted in the offer of a position with UBS Phillips & Drew in 1987, where he became a property equity analyst and specialist salesman, closely involved with many of the late 1980's take-overs, mergers, flotations, equity issues and disposals.
In 1989, Marc was approached by NatWest Markets (NWM) to become a Director and set up a property equity research and sales effort. He was also a founding Board Director of NatWest Markets Property Limited which oversaw all property activities within the investment bank. During his employment at NWM, Marc was additionally involved in many corporate transactions that included; flotations, rights and debentures issues, merger and acquisition advice, corporate restructuring and the flotation in the US REIT market of a UK PLC subsidiary company. He also advised NatWest Bank on companies where it had significant debt exposure or that were in financial difficulty.
In February 1994, Marc joined Goldman Sachs International as an Executive Director to establish a European property equity research and sales effort, to form closer relationships with property companies (i.e. corporate advice) and to advise, and later manage, the Whitehall Real Estate Fund (WHF) in its investment of proprietary capital in the UK/Europe. Other responsibilities included multi-disciplined corporate advice, such as advising an asset rich FTSE 100 company that led to a restructuring of its world-wide property portfolio.
Marc became Managing Director (Chief Executive Officer) of Moorfield Group PLC in January 1996 and on joining the Group, inter alia: restructured the Moorfield Board and management team; appointed new financial advisers and stockbroker; reassessed the Group's property portfolio and its financing (both equity and debt); and formulated a unique strategy for the Group with a view to maximising returns on the Company's equity.
In January 1996, Moorfield was in a highly distressed asset and financial position, however, since that time, Moorfield has pursued the strategy of seeking opportunistic investment returns underpinned by secure assets. Despite the initial constraints imposed by its size and financial health, Moorfield increased very substantially the assets under management, particularly through the use of joint ventures and limited partnerships with private equity investors. The policy of collaboration with external capital sources allowed Moorfield to pursue opportunities not normally available to a company of its size and as such to generate value for Moorfield shareholders disproportionate to the Company's own capital commitments.
Notwithstanding the proven strategy and resultant financial performance, Moorfield shares consistently traded at a significant discount to their net asset value as a listed public company. The poor rating of shares limited the Moorfield shareholders' ability to benefit from the growth in net asset value in any consistent way and restricted the business plans of the management.
In March 2001, the Directors of Moorfield considered that the future strategy and prospects of the Company were more suited to that of a private company. As a result the Directors concluded that an offer for Moorfield, involving and retaining the Management Team, provided the best opportunity for securing value for Moorfield shareholders.
In 2005, Moorfield raised the first of its discretionary real estate private equity funds (MREF) investing in real estate and real estate related opportunities on behalf of blue chip third party investors including; endowments, foundations, pension funds, family offices, sovereign wealth funds and fund of funds. In 2007, Moorfield raised MREFII with the same mandate as previously.