GARP Risk Snapshot Survey: Emerging Risks in Global Real Estate

William (Bill) May is the Managing Director of Global Head of Certifications and Educational Programs at GARP, and is responsible for the FRM, SCR, and other risk-relevant educational programs. Prior to joining GARP, William had over 20 years of market experience including serving as a Senior Director in Fitch Ratings’ credit market research group and as a Senior Research Officer at UBS Wealth Management. He has worked for several buy-side and sell-side firms including Bank of America and Federated Investors as well as specialty firms like Andrew Kalotay Associates and Law and Economic Consulting Group. He began his career in the research function of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and has worked on the Open Market Trading Desk and as a bank examiner. William holds a BS in applied mathematics and economics from Stony Brook University; an MBA, MA in economics, and Advanced Certificate in financial econometrics and data analysis from Fordham University; an MS in financial engineering from the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, an MS in applied statistics and an EdM in measurement and evaluation from Columbia University’s Teachers College where he is currently pursuing an MS in neuroscience and education.

William Ma is Global CIO of GROW Investment Group. Previously he was the CIO of Noah Holdings and Gopher Asset Management, where he was responsible for overseeing investment management, asset allocation. and due diligence. He launched the first China multi-strategy hedge fund and managed multiple China domestic public market hedge funds including a Greater China multi-managers fund that was ranked by BarclayHedge as the best emerging market fund among hedge funds globally based on three years annualized return. The team won the Golden Bull Award for Best Domestic Fund of Hedge Funds in China in 2018.

Mr. Ma co-founded Penjing Asset Management (PAM) prior to joining Noah, managing USD 2 billion in client assets. He was Asia CIO of Gottex Fund Management (GFM) when PAM was acquired by GFM. During his 20-year investment career Mr. Ma has analyzed over 2500 Asian hedge funds and invested in 250 of them. He earned a bachelor’s in Engineering from the University of Hong Kong, and an MBA (Finance and E-Commerce) from the University of San Francisco. Mr. Ma holds the CFA and CAIA designations and is a member of the Hong Kong Institute of Financial Analysts.

Mark Bhasin is currently Senior Vice-President and Chief Underwriter of Agency Multifamily Finance for Basis Investment Group, LLC, a multi-strategy commercial real estate finance platform based in New York. He has spent over 20 years in the finance and real estate sectors, and has previously worked at CWCapital, GMAC Commercial Mortgage, and PaineWebber. Mark is currently an Adjunct Associate Professor of Finance at New York University’s Stern School of Business where he teaches the Real Estate Primary Markets course in the MBA and undergraduate programs. He is also an owner of Delos, which is the founder of the WELL Building Standard (WELL certification), WELL Health-Safety rating, WELL AP credential, and International WELL Building Institute (IWBI).

Rajesh Agarwal is a Senior Managing Director and Portfolio Manager of US Mortgages & Consumer Strategies at Napier Park Global Capital, formerly a part of Citigroup’s alternative investment arm, Citi Capital Advisors. Prior to that Rajesh was a Managing Partner and Portfolio Manager at HSPI, LP and a Senior Analyst at Merrill Lynch Investment Managers, where he served as lead analyst for asset selection across residential housing sectors (Prime/Alt-A/Sub-Prime) and CDOs for three high-grade CDO deals launched and managed by the firm. 

Before getting into ABS/MBS research, Rajesh worked in the Global Markets and Investment Banking group at Merrill Lynch, and was a Senior Engineer at Simulation Sciences, Inc., where he developed simulation algorithms used by the chemical industry. Rajesh received both a Ph.D. and an MS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Clifford Rossi is Professor-of-the-Practice, Director of the Smith Enterprise Risk Consortium and Executive-in-Residence at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland. Prior to entering academia, Dr. Rossi had nearly 25 years of risk management experience in banking and government, having held senior executive roles at several major financial services companies. He is a well-established expert in risk management with a focus on financial risk management, climate risk, supply chain, and health and safety risk issues.

Dr. Rossi’s last industry position was Managing Director and Chief Risk Officer for Citigroup’s Consumer Lending Group where he was responsible for overseeing the risk of a USD 300+ billion global portfolio of mortgages and home equity, student, and auto loans with 700 employees under his direction. While there he was intimately involved in Citi’s TARP and stress test activities. He also served as Chief Credit Officer at Washington Mutual (WaMu), Managing Director and Chief Risk Officer at Countrywide Bank, and Chief Economist and Chief Analytics Officer at Radian Guaranty. Before these assignments, Dr. Rossi held senior risk management positions at Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.