Episode summary
Episode 372: When you have to go to know: Maggie Coleman Global Head of Client and Portfolio Solu...
The Fiftyfaces Podcast
· · 30 min · Guests: Maggie Coleman
Summary
Maggie Coleman traces a non-linear path from Indiana University and investment banking to consulting, a long spell at the University of Chicago, and then real estate capital markets, where she found a field that combined quantitative work with tangible assets. She says academia taught her discipline and self-reflection, but real estate fit her interests in economics, architecture, people, and the built environment. Her career then moved through Staubach, JLL, her own firm Sera Global, and eventually Manulife Investment Management, where she now helps build the firm’s real estate platform.
Coleman argues that real estate is in a new cycle shaped by post-COVID liquidity pressures, valuation resets, and changing capital flows. She says investors can currently access enhanced yields in core and core-plus strategies without moving up the risk curve, and she sees growing demand for niche and adjacent sectors such as data centers, self-storage, affordable housing, senior housing, active adult, and industrial tied to power and AI. In her view, returns will be driven less by 40 years of cap-rate compression and more by sourcing, structuring, execution, and sector selection.
She also emphasizes that risk and governance are changing, especially around cybersecurity, AI, and data transparency. Coleman says LPs are shifting toward total-portfolio thinking, which raises the bar for reporting and decision support. Her leadership advice is to listen closely, set clear goals, communicate openly, and build a strong network early because, as she puts it, in real estate “you got to go to know.”
Key takeaways
- Coleman says real estate now offers “enhanced yield” in core and core-plus without moving up the risk curve, with returns of about 200 to 400 basis points above benchmark.
- She thinks the best opportunities are in niche and adjacent sectors, especially data centers, self-storage, affordable housing, senior housing, active adult, and industrial tied to AI and power.
- Coleman argues the industry is moving away from the 40-year era of cap-rate compression, so execution and sourcing matter more for outperformance.
- She says LPs are increasingly focused on cybersecurity, AI, and total-portfolio governance, which is changing how managers must present data and risk.
- Her main career advice is to build and keep an active network early, because information advantage matters for both investing and career growth.
Notable quotes
“build your network early and keep your network active because so much of this industry is about the network”
“I love creating value and so I love the idea that you can structure a transaction or, you know, build an asset that adds value to a portfolio”
“we're delivering enhanced yield without, you know, going up the risk curve to value add, but achieving call it 200 to 400 basis points above what would typically be a core or core plus benchmark”
“real estate has always been a hedge, you know, against inflation. It has always been a part of a well diversified alternative assets portfolio”
“You got to get out there. You got to go. You got to go to places. You got to talk to people and you got to show up”
How the episode opens
Build your network early and keep your network active because so much of this industry is about the network and it is about again information advantage whether it's for career building whether it's for investing or getting connected to people who might help you in some way some at some point in the future. So that's just I think something that I'm constantly encouraging our our team members and I still do it I still stretch to try and meet and network think about strategically where I need to build my my connections.
I'm Ethan Davis and welcome to the 50 faces podcast a podcast committed to revealing the richness and diversity of the world of investment by focusing on its people and their stories. This podcast series is kindly supported by Franklin Templeton and Alvine Capital. Franklin Templeton is a global investment management firm that provides a broad range of investment solutions including mutual funds ETFs alternative investments wealth management and technology enabled financial services.
Founded in 1947 the firm manages approximately 1.8 trillion in assets under management and serves individual and institutional investors across more than 150 countries. Alvine Capital was founded in 2005 its European focused private capital advisory and placement agent that provides capital raising services to investment managers from its offices in London and Stockholm. It creates bespoke capital raising programs that blend appropriate investor targeting and sophisticated marketing to deliver a fund raise aligned with institutional expectations.
I'm joined today by Maggie Coleman who's chief investment officer real estate equity North America as well as global head of client and portfolio solutions at Manulife Investment Management. Prior to joining Manulife, she spent most of her time in real estate and capital markets. Welcome, Maggie.
Thanks for joining me here in person in London today.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- real estate returns
- real estate portfolio role
- client use of real estate
- going to know
- early networking
Companies and tickers mentioned
- MFC
- Manulife Investment Management
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Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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The Fiftyfaces Podcast, this episode and its artwork belong to Aoifinn Devitt. Octagon is not affiliated with the show; this page is an independent summary.
