About this episode
Sonny Kalsi discusses the evolution of commercial real estate and the importance of culture and leadership in building a resilient organization.
In this episode of Leading Voices in Real Estate, host Matt Slepin sits down with Sonny Kalsi, CEO of BGO, a global real estate investment manager with over $90 billion in assets under management. Continuing the show’s multi-episode theme of thinking broadly, both globally and long term, this conversation explores how commercial real estate has evolved and what the next decade might look like in an increasingly unpredictable world. Following recent and upcoming conversations with Tim Bodner of PwC and Roy March of Eastdil Secured, Sonny offers a distinct perspective shaped by experience across market cycles and geographies. He shares the remarkable story of leaving Morgan Stanley in the depths of the Global Financial Crisis, founding GreenOak in 2010, and through growth and strategic M&A, helping build what is now BGO, a leading global real estate platform. Beyond markets and investment trends, Matt and Sonny dive into a core Leading Voices theme, the value of the business platform itself. Sonny speaks candidly about people, culture, and the less tangible elements that drive long term enterprise value, factors that matter just as much as AUM in building a durable and…
People in this episode
Host: Matt Slepin
Guest: Sonny Kalsi
Topics covered
- commercial real estate
- global investment
- market cycles
- leadership
- organizational culture
- long term thinking
Keywords
- real estate
- investment management
- AUM
- capital flows
- business platform
- enterprise value
- market trends
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: BGO, Morgan Stanley, GreenOak, PwC, Eastdil Secured
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