Michael Zerda

Michael Zerda re-joined LaSalle in October 2021 as Head of European Debt and Value-Add Strategies, responsible for LaSalle’s higher octane equity strategies and market leading debt platform in Europe. He was previously with LaSalle from 2009 to 2015.

Michael has 22 years’ experience investing in equity and debt opportunities in Europe and the US, across a wide variety of real estate asset classes. Since 2010, he has been responsible for transactions totaling over $10 billion in net equity contributions, and $22 billion in gross loan commitments, across 140 individual transactions in major Western European markets spanning private equity, structured equity investments, equity joint ventures, senior debt, mezzanine debt, corporate debt, and development finance.

Michael was most recently Head of Europe for Blackstone Real Estate Debt Strategies, where he oversaw the growth of one Europe’s most active non-bank lending platforms and led various notable initiatives, including providing a €1.2 billion whole loan for Henderson Park’s purchase of Green REIT, the first ever financing for a public to private real estate transaction in Europe by a non-bank lender, the establishment of a +€1 billion pan-European logistics lending program, and expansion into most Western European markets.

Prior to joining Blackstone, Michael spent six years at LaSalle Investment Management overseeing the set-up and growth of its market leading debt and special situations platform. During his time at LaSalle, Mr Zerda was involved in raising €1.9 billion of capital commitments of which €1.7 billion was deployed during his tenure across 35 individual direct equity, preferred equity, whole loan, and mezzanine investments.

Prior to joining LaSalle, Michael was Vice President in Merrill Lynch’s Global Principal Investments division in London, where he focused on European equity investments, including the acquisition of a €13 billion portfolio of non-performing loans and a loan servicing company from Banca Intesa in Italy. Prior to that he worked at Archon Group, Goldman Sachs’ real estate and distressed loan management platform and Archon Capital, Goldman Sachs’ real estate mezzanine platform.

Michael received a BA in Finance from the Neely School of Business at Texas Christian University, where he graduated with honors.