The State of Private Real Estate Investing

Ashu Pal is Head of Portfolio Management at NCM and a member of the Investment Committee. Ashu leads NAIFX’s investment strategy, portfolio construction, asset allocation and manages a team of two. Ashu has over two decades experience in private credit and structured debt. Before joining Nomura in 2025, he was a Senior Portfolio Manager at the Maryland State Retirement and Pension System where he has played a pivotal role in building out the plan’s private and liquid credit investments platform. Since internalizing portfolio execution in 2019, the Maryland public and private markets investments under the purview of Ashu consistently garnered top quartile performance. Prior to joining Maryland in 2019, Ashu held stints at Citigroup, the Asian Development Bank, and a proprietary credit fund sponsored by Macquarie Bank of Australia. He began his financial career at UBS Asset Management, where he managed a $7 billion structured debt portfolio. Ashu received an MBA from the University of Chicago and an M.A. in Economics from North Carolina State University. He also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and has been a CFA exam grader. Ashu is frequently invited by industry forums to share his expertise in designing and managing investment portfolios focused on private credit and structured debt.

Over 25 years of broad leadership and corporate strategy experience. As Managing Partner – Head of Investment Management, Lee oversees the firm’s business strategy, marketing, operations, analytics and investment management activities.
Prior to joining Forum, Lee was a strategic advisor to private and public companies in the U.S., U.K., and Europe, and served as Managing Partner leading corporate strategy at the private equity firm Kudu Investment Management. Over the prior fifteen years, Lee was a leadership team member at BlackRock, JP Morgan, and PIMCO, serving on various executive, operating, and global investment committees. Before becoming an executive leader, Lee was an account manager to institutional and middle market investors, including Fortune 1000 companies and Governmental Entities.
Lee began his career as a university coach and assistant professor and holds a BSE from State University of New York, MA from the University of Albany, MBA from the University of Denver Daniels College of Business, Executive Education in Negotiation and Leadership from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and a was a PhD candidate at the University of Colorado Boulder. Lee volunteers at several charities that protect at-risk youth and promote inner-city education, and published his first book in 2020, Thirteen Waves, an Amazon best seller.