LaSalle Investment Management ('LaSalle') has announced that Gerald Blundell will retire from the firm at the end of April 2009. He will also resign his position as European Director, which he has held since the merger of LaSalle and Jones Lang Wootton in 1999.
During his 30-year career with the firm, Blundell pioneered real estate forecasting and risk analysis and built a risk management system which helped the business to mitigate the worst effects of the current downturn. He was the first to recognize that the volatility of property returns needed to be de-smoothed to make them more comparable with other assets and created the famous Jones Lang LaSalle 'property clock'. In 2003, he published the Blundell Risk Web, an alternative approach to portfolio risk management which has since become a standard tool used by UK property fund managers.
Jeff Jacobson, CEO of LaSalle Investment Management, said, "We give enormous thanks to Gerry for his innumerable contributions to LaSalle and to the property sector as a whole over the last three decades. He has provided wisdom to our management team and has been a true pioneer in real estate risk management. We wish him all the very best in his future."
Gerald Blundell will continue his research in risk management and portfolio strategy through the Investment Property Forum and other media, together with a growing interest in watercolours.
Source: Citigate
