Financial Services >> CEO Interviews >> November 6, 2015

Interview with the CEO and President: New York REIT, Inc. (NYSE:NYRT)

Happel, Michael
Michael Happel serves as the Chief Executive Officer and President of New York REIT, Inc., and previously served as Executive Vice President, Chief Investment Officer and observer to the board of directors for its nonlisted predecessor, New York Recovery REIT, Inc. Mr. Happel has over 20 years of experience investing in real estate, including office, retail, multifamily, industrial and hotel properties, as well as real estate companies. From 1988 to 2002, he worked at Morgan Stanley & Co., specializing in real estate and becoming Co-Head of Acquisitions for the Morgan Stanley Real Estate Funds, or MSREF, in 1994. While at MSREF, he was involved in acquiring over $10 billion of real estate and related assets in MSREF I and MSREF II. In 2002, Mr. Happel left Morgan Stanley & Co. to join Westbrook Partners, a large real estate private equity firm with over $5 billion of real estate assets under management at the time. From October 2004 to May 2009, he served at Atticus Capital, a multibillion-dollar hedge fund, as the Head of Real Estate with responsibility for investing primarily in REITs and other publicly traded real estate securities. Mr. Happel received a B.A. in economics from Duke University and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. Profile
TWST: For readers who might not be familiar with New York REIT, please start with some background on its origins and how it got to be where it is today with the name change and