Qualitas adds Executive Director to principal investments team

Real estate investment management firm, Qualitas, has announced the appointment of James Kaufman as executive director in the principal investments team, effective January 2017.

In this role, Kaufman is responsible for leading the firm's expansion and increased focus on the 'value-add' sector of the market.

Kaufman joins from global real estate firm JLL, where he was a senior member in the capital markets group, supervising transactions totalling in excess of $4 billion. He has over 30 years' experience in the real estate industry, 27 of those at JLL.

Commenting on his appointment, Qualitas' managing director, Principal Investments, Mark Fischer, said: "Many of our existing investors are asking us to increase our value-add activity as they like that it offers a higher return than core assets, but with a medium level of risk. It's an effective way to diversify their portfolio risk...in this space the key to success is in the asset selection and execution of the transition plan for the asset. To do that successfully it needs a dedicated focus and someone with James' skills, experience and contacts will allow us to continue to get all of those elements right."