RE Seminar: David C. Rupert
Date: Thursday, September 9, 2010
Time: 4:30-6:30 with dinner to follow
Where: 198 Beck Center
Attire: Business
The Cornell Real Estate Industry Seminar welcomes David C. Rupert, President of The Olympia Companies, to campus as the featured speaker on Thursday, September 9.
David Rupert’s 29 year real estate career includes more than $5 billion in transaction volume on four continents. He is currently raising an equity fund to purchase distressed hotels with The Olympia Companies, a privately-held, 800-employee, hotel owneroperator with four decades of experience. David also creates digital marketing programs for leading companies (in commercial real estate and other industries) through his Whitebrook Media platform. Prior to founding Whitebrook, David was a partner in EastAgro, a fund focused on agricultural and commercial real estate investments in Eastern Europe, and prior to EastAgro, David was Chief Operating Officer of Griffin Capital, a Los Angeles-headquartered real estate investment company.
During his eight year tenure at Griffin, David helped the firm acquire a portfolio in excess of $900 million and 8.4 million square feet, including office, industrial, retail and hospitality assets located in 12 states. Equity capital was raised from more than 700 individual investors via 30 independent broker dealers.
In the decade prior to Griffin, primarily during the 1990’s, David was a senior executive at Salomon Brothers (now part of Citi) based in London, Sydney, Tokyo and New York, providing valuation, merger advisory, brokerage and securities underwriting and distribution services to leading public and private real estate owners around the world.
A graduate of Harvard University with an MBA, and Cornell University with a BA, David has been very active in a myriad of Cornell activities for more than 20 years, including: Advisory Board to Cornell Endowment Fund on real estate investments; Founding Board Member, Cornell Program in Real Estate (PRE); PRE Annual Conference and Event Planning Chairman; Advisor to PRE on digital media and marketing communications, and guest lecturer in various PRE courses.