Michael McGowan

Portfolio Manager Real Estate, Strategy, Portfolio Analysis, and Risk at CalSTRS

Speaker

Michael McGowan is a seasoned real estate professional with 30 years of experience in both public and private real estate investing. Mr. McGowan joined the real estate team of the California State Teachers’ Retirement System in 2021 and is Portfolio Manager of its Strategy, Portfolio Analysis, and Risk (“SPAR”) team. He is responsible for strategic initiatives within CalSTRS' $48 billion real estate portfolio, such as formulating allocation and investment strategies, ESG and Diversity, and overseeing $5 billion of investments in open-end funds and REITs. Mr. McGowan is a voting member of CalSTRS’ Real Estate Investment Committee and its Debt Committee.

Before joining CalSTRS, Mr. McGowan was a Principal at Bard Consulting (2016-2021), where he assisted large public pension plans with their real estate investing strategies and implementation. Between 2005 and 2016, Mr. McGowan was a portfolio manager for a series of public real estate (REIT) mutual funds run by Forward and Kensington Investment Group. Prior to his career in public real estate, Mr. McGowan worked for RREEF (now DWS) as the Head of Research – Industrial and Office Properties.