Personnel News from MetLife Investment Management, IPA, Walker & Dunlop

Sara Queen to Join MetLife Investment Management as Head of Real Estate Equity Group
MetLife Investment Management, Whippany, N.J., appointed Sara Queen as Managing Director and Head of Real Estate Equity effective March 15.

Reporting to Robert Merck, Senior Managing Director and Global Head of MetLife Investment Management’s Real Estate and Agriculture business, Queen will succeed Mark Wilsmann, who is retiring at the end of March after more than 30 years with the company.

Queen will oversee MetLife Investment Management’s $32.7 billion real estate equity portfolio, which comprises core, core-plus, build-to-core, value-add and opportunistic strategies for the firm’s institutional clients and MetLife’s general account.

She joins MIM from Mapletree Investments, a real estate development, investment and capital management company headquartered in Singapore, where she was head of the company’s North America business. After joining Mapletree Investments in 2018, Queen tripled the firm’s U.S. real estate equity assets under management to $10 billion.

Prior to Mapletree Investments, Queen spent 11 years at Brookfield as head of asset management for the company’s U.S. office portfolio, in addition to overseeing strategic planning and management of their expanding closed-end accounts business. Before Brookfield, she spent nine years at Clarion Partners in a variety of asset management and portfolio management roles.

Sean Williams Joins Institutional Property Advisors in Florida

Institutional Property Advisors announced Sean Williams joined the firm as a Senior Vice President. He joined IPA’s Florida-based team led by Shelton Granade, Luke Wickham and Justin Basquill and will execute multifamily transactions on behalf of institutional and major private clients throughout the Tampa Bay region in partnership with Granade’s team.

Walker & Dunlop Adds Multifamily Property Sales Team in Houston

Walker & Dunlop, Bethesda, Md., hired Managing Directors Ryan Epstein and Jennifer Ray to market and sell multifamily assets in Houston. The firm also hired Senior Director Nathan Jones, Director Scott Bray, Transaction Manager Leslie Ginzel, Transaction Coordinator Lauren Ehlers, Senior Graphic Designer Jamie VanWunnik and Senior Analyst Chris Cassidy.

Prior to joining Walker & Dunlop, Epstein and Ray led Berkadia’s Houston investment sales team and have closed on more than $7.5 billion of apartment sales throughout their careers. The team brings more than 29 years of experience representing and advising major sponsors.