Camille Douglas

Biography

CAMILLE J. DOUGLAS is a senior executive in the real estate industry with over 30 years experience executing real estate transactions and financial strategy including corporate and project level acquisitions and dispositions, debt and equity financing and restructurings and recapitalizations.  Her career has also included pioneering work on commercial mortgage back securities and cross border equity investment.

Camille is currently a Senior Managing Director, Acquisitions and Capital Markets, at LeFrak. Since joining the firm in January 2010, she has been responsible for strategic real estate acquisitions and development outside New York and led the company’s expansion into the Miami market in 2011 after focusing on the UK in 2010-2011.

From 1999 to 2010, she was the Founding Principal of Mainstreet Capital Partners, specializing in transaction oriented real estate investment advisory services including the privatization of the Canary Wharf Group in the UK, a $300m partnership/private equity raise for Cyrela Commercial Properties (“CCP”), a listed Brazilian company and a $200m industrial development joint venture between Pro Logis (formerly AMB) and CCP. In addition to Lefrak and the aforementioned, her clients at Mainstreet included other leading real estate companies around the world including Westbrook Partners in the UK, Cadillac Fairview and IPC US Income Commercial REIT in Canada, Boston Properties, Boston Consulting Group and Yale and Brown Universities in the US and Westcourt Real Estate in India.

From 1982-1994, she was a Senior Vice President at Olympia & York, responsible for US and UK corporate financial strategy including the execution of all US structured debt and equity financing. In that capacity, she pioneered the first commercial mortgage backed securitizations and was responsible for the company’s US acquisitions and dispositions. Prior to joining O&Y, she was a Vice President at Morgan Stanley executing portfolio dispositions, M&A transactions, and development joint ventures.

In 2017, Ms. Douglas joined the Real Estate Advisory Committee of the New York State Common Retirement Fund. She has also served on the Board of Trustees of Starwood Property Trust, where she is a member of the Audit Committee, since 2010. She has previously served on the Boards of several not for profit organizations including the King Hussein Foundation, the Albany Academy and the Harvard Club of New York.

Ms. Douglas has been an Adjunct Professor in Finance and Economics at Columbia Business School since 2005, teaching a course on Global Real Estate Investment. She has previously taught Real Estate Capital Markets at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and has guest lectured at Harvard Business School, Yale School of Management, the Wharton School and the Tuck School.

Ms. Douglas received her Master of Urban Planning degree from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University in 1977.  During her studies at Harvard, she served as a teaching assistant to Harvard Business School Professor William Poorvu and studied at both the Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School.  Ms. Douglas received a BA from Smith College in 1973, and also was an exchange student at Williams College 1970-71. In addition, she has studied land use and environmental law at the University of British Columbia School of Law and Albany Law School respectively.

Teaching

Spring 2018

Global Real Estate Investment (MBA)

Spring 2017

Global Real Estate Investment (MBA)

Spring 2016

Global Real Estate Investment (MBA)

Spring 2015

Global Real Estate Investment (MBA)

Spring 2014

Global Real Estate Investment (MBA)

Spring 2013

Global Real Estate Investment (MBA)

Spring 2012

Global Real Estate Investment (MBA)

Columbia Caseworks cases

Tigre Logistica (2011)
Coauthor(s): Camille Douglas

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Project Python (2010)
Coauthor(s): Camille Douglas

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Liquidity in a Credit Drought: Equity Residential (EQR) (2010)
Coauthor(s): Camille Douglas

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Homex: Investing in Emerging Markets Real Estate (2008)
Coauthor(s): Camille Douglas, Yasmine Uzmez

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