John Carrafiell is the Co-Founder and Co-Chief Executive Officer and a major shareholder of privately held BentallGreenOak (‘BGO’), a leading, global investment management and advisory firm with approximately 89 billion in assets under management, 25 offices in 12 countries. John was a Founder of GreenOak Real Estate in 2010 and together with the team built the business organically to $12 billion (USD) of assets under management in 10 countries with over 100 employees prior to its 2019 merger with Bentall Kennedy (owned by Canada headquartered leading financial institution, Sun Life).
John is a 37-year veteran of global Private Equity investing and investment management, M&A, corporate finance, asset-backed securitization, and real estate (32 years based in London and Europe). He became Head of European Real Estate for Morgan Stanley in 1994 (at the age of 29) and rose during a 22-year career to be Co-Head of Global Real Estate (both principal investing with $100 billion of AUM, and Investment Banking) and to serve as a member of the Morgan Stanley Investment Banking Division’s six-person Global Operating Committee in 2005.
John is a member of the board and the Compensation Committee of Lineage, Inc., the world’s largest temperature-controlled logistics company, where John helped lead the company towards its IPO in July 2024, one of the largest IPOs in the past decade, and the largest-ever real estate IPO. BGO holds a significant minority stake in the company. John currently serves as a member of the Board and Chairman of the Audit Committee of Klepierre, one of Europe’s largest REITs. He is Chairman of the board of IREIT by BGO, a $1 billion gross asset value, Logistics and Industrial REIT, launched in July 2023. He is a member of the board of Sandow Lakes Ranch Venture, LLC, formed in 2022, a 32,000-acre (50 square miles) development project outside Austin, Texas, where BGO owns a majority equity stake. John is also a member of the Board of Norway-based Bulk Infrastructure (as a board member from 2020-2022, now as an observer), a leading provider of green data centers and logistics in Europe, where BGO holds an over 60% stake.
From 2011, John advised the New York State Common Retirement Fund and then acted as the Fund’s appointed board director and Audit Committee member of Shugard, Europe’s largest self-storage company, from its IPO until February 2019.
John was a member of the board, Chairman of the Audit Committee, and Chairman of the Operating Committee of Canary Wharf, the leading developer and owner of the London office district, where John led the $10 billion (GAV) LBO in the largest-ever real estate transaction of its type at the time.
John is a former Trustee of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and member of its Finance and Endowment Committee. John is the co-Chairman of the Yale School of Architecture Dean’s Council and co-Chairman of the Chelsea & Westminster Hospital Foundation Trust Development Board. John graduated Yale University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy. John is based in Florida, in BGO’s Miami Office.