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Bio- Moina Banerjee, CFO, JBG Smith
Moina Banerjee has served as our Chief Financial Officer since December 2020, prior to which she served as Executive Vice President, Head of Capital Markets since December 2018 and as an Executive Vice President since our formation in 2017. Ms. Banerjee worked at JBG from August 2010 until our formation, serving as a Principal in the Investments group and on the Management Committee. Prior to joining JBG, Ms. Banerjee worked at the Blackstone Group in New York, focusing primarily on office, hotel, and senior living acquisitions. She also worked within Citigroup’s Investment Banking Division in New York (NYSE: C).
Ms. Banerjee graduated with a Bachelor of Science in International Economics from Georgetown University and earned a Master of Business Administration from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Show Notes
- Promoted in early 2021 to CFO (5:40)
- Joined JBG 12 yrs ago in acquisitions initially in hotels and then in workouts and disposition (5:45)
- James Iker and Leslie Ludwig approached her to build an Asset Management function (7:20)
- A bit more discipline from an institutional perspective (7:30)
- She was approached by Matt Kelly to help prepare an S-11 for preparing an IPO (over 300 pages long) (8:15)
- Day to day responsibilities (9:45)
- Six teams report up to her- Capital Markets, Portfolio Mgmt., Investor Relations, Accounting, Tax, IT (10:00)
- Great learning experience
- IPO process is “years in the making” (11:00)
Origins and Education
- Parents moved from India to England in the 1970s where she was born (12:20)
- Dad was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford in England
- Moved to DC area when she was 6 months old and grew up in Bethesda, MD (13:00)
- Attended St. Andrews School
- Family had a profound impact on her (13:30)
- Strong female role models (14:00)
- Maternal grandmother- huge influence (14:10)
- Mother went back to get MBA when she was 5 yrs. old and her Father was traveling considerably (15:00)
- Her Aunt was a top advertising executive in India for Leo Burnett (15:30)
- Interview with Namita Mukharjee- her maternal grandmother (16:40)
- Oral history project of India’s 50th year of independence from Great Britain
- She grew up in the town where the Nehru family was located
- Memorialized the evolution of India since its independence
- Strong female role models (14:00)
- Attended Georgetown and studied International Economics (19:10)
- Her Father was her inspiration due to his work for the IMF traveling worldwide in very transitional times in many countries (19:30)
- She thought she would work at the State Dept. or the IMF when she started at Georgetown.(21:30)
- Interviewed with Bank of America for an investment banking internship in NY and did it (23:00)
- She fell in love with NY and the investment banking world (23:50)
- Had never left DC before this and immediately was intrigued with the business environment contrasting with the “academic bubble” that her parents were in (25:30)
- Received an offer for full time work- institutions (27:00)
Career & Graduate School
- Interviewed with other investment banks- joined Solomon/Smith Barney that became Citibank (27:30)
- Training program for recent undergraduates (27:45)
- Placed with real estate group at Citibank just by happenstance (attracted by macroeconomic aspects) (29:30)
- Thankful that she joined the real estate industry (30:00)
- REIT exposure- how do REITs grow- issuing equity or acquiring portfolios and investment banks are in the middle of them (31:00)
- 35 deals while there (31:30)
- IPO of American Campus Communities (32:00)
- 6 weeks of training and then into a group (33:15)
- 70-80 hour work weeks as an Analyst in IB work (33:50)
- Likes to work hard and multitask, gets bored easily (34:45)
- Applied to Business School- Attended Wharton for her MBA (36:30)
- Wharton has a great finance program (38:00)
- Didn’t think she would return to real estate (38:20)
- Marry interest in international development and finance- looked into microfinance (38:30)
- Interned in India to learn about the microfinance industry and found it challenging and too early for her talents (39:00)
- Her mind kept being drawn back into real estate (40:10)
- She had worked on a Blackstone financing at the end of her Citibank days and kept in touch (40:30)
- Went back in her second year of grad school and decided to focus on real estate opportunities (41:00)
- Blackstone offered her a job and she took it (42:30)
- Blackstone
- Opportunity to work with brightest real estate people in the industry (43:15)
- Jon Gray was her boss then (43:30)
- Worked very hard there and learned a ton
- Joined in 2008 during the GFC (44:30)
- Brakes on acquisitions at the time, but holding dry powder for opportunities (44:40)
- Workout opportunities (45:00)
- Underwrote every asset class in real estate there- Senior living, industrial, apartments, etc. (45:30)
- Thematic investing (46:05)
- Efficiency and speed- well oiled machine (46:15)
- Big bets were based on “conviction” in their decisions- assumptions were poked and pounded to make sure there were several alternative strategies (47:15)
- After 2 yrs. she got a call from her friend, Ed Chaglassian of JBG to see if she’d make a move (48:10)
- JBG
- She met with James Iker, Matt Kelly and Rob Stewart and was impressed (49:20)
- She realized that her friend, Ed, had returned to JBG after Wharton when he could have gone anywhere (49:40)
- Culture as a private company is very similar to what the company is today as a public company (50:30)
- JBG and Blackstone culturally was very similar- brilliance at both companies (51:15)
- She realized that JBG had the edge on development strategies (52:15)
- She felt accepted as a woman businesswoman and could have a family at JBG (52:45)
- Leslie Ludwig was her mentor and role model at JBG (54:00)
- Pioneer behind JBG Women’s Initiative- Helped her and other women how to advocate (55:00)
- Empower women and provide a parental leave policy at the company (56:00)
- Wouldn’t be where she is without her (56:20)
- Public company structure (56:40)
- FFO and Debt to EBITDA are public company metrics and not as important for private companies (57:20)
- However, as a private company the interface with their fund investors was very similar to the public company investors (58:00)
- Reputation as a strong capital allocator and an exceptional developer (58:40)
- Leverage- Active borrowers in private company format and have “stayed the course” as a public company as well, yet not as much leverage (59:00)
- Not issuers of unsecured debt (59:30)
- Balance proceeds, rate and flexibility (59:45)
- Skewed income due to development activities needs to be normalized by LTV management (1:00:00)
- When the “spin” transaction took place, there were several assets that were kept out of the new REIT at the time (1:02:15)
- Third party asset and property management fees flow into the REIT (1:03:00)
- Land sales were then “exchanged” via 1031 into income producing multifamily acquisitions (1:03:15)
- Sold $2.5B worth of real estate (office buildings and land) (1:04:00)
- Diverting much of the capital into National Landing (1:04:30)
- Story of the Merger with Vornado (1:05:15)
- Her role was to flex and help with whatever needed to be done (1:06:15)
- Combination of assets and people (1:06:30)
- It takes a village to get this major project done (1:07:15)
- Getting involved in SEC process together with CFO of Vornado (1:07:40)
- Leslie provided assistance and as a sounding board during the merger process (1:08:15)
- Amazon HQ2 Pursuit (1:09:15)
- Her involvement with investors was her role (1:09:45)
- Would there be an opportunity to issue equity for the Amazon transaction (1:10:00)
- Utilized the asset opportunity with Crystal City at the time to be the right situation for Amazon (1:11:00)
- Transformation of National Landing is palpable with Amazon’s growth already (1:11:50)
- Executive team (1:13:00)
- Matt sets the tone strategically (1:13:20)
- Communication is very strong among the senior team (1:13:50)
- Six groups play their part (1:14:20)
- Capital recycling- culling portfolio to resonate with investors of their story of building a multifamily pipeline (1:14:30)
- Capital Markets team- Steve Potter is leader
- Portfolio Management team- Metrics for publishing- Kevin Connelly
- Investment Relations- Barbat Rodgers
- Accounting- 90 people led by Angie Valdes
- Tax Team- Donna Wagner runs that team
- IT Team- Jeremy Poteet– tapping into efficiencies
- Capital Allocation decisions to be accretive to company value (1:17:50)
- Stock repurchasing is worthwhile when the price of the stock is below NAV of the company on a per share basis (1:18:15)
- Active seller of assets redeploying capital to development and liquidity needs (1:19:00)
- Always cautious on funding needs (1:19:20)
- Capital markets are slowing down and transactions are slowing, as well (1:19:40)
- Advice to people in industry is to be “authentic” with other people…need to be yourself (1:20:55)
- Worked in male dominated settings and she has never felt uncomfortable (1:21:15)
- Dig into the culture and whether companies appreciate who you are as a person (1:21:50)
- Hiring characteristics
- Intellectual curiosity (1:22:25)
- Willing to dig in (1:22:30)
- Collaborative in nature- working with other people (1:22:45)
- Inspirations
- Her grandmother was mentally tough to the core (1:23:30)
- She was a recipient of a Fulbright scholarship
- Instilled in her children and grandchildren to be tough mentally and be resilient and curious (1:24:15)
- “Fortune favors the brave” (1:24:45)
- Her grandmother was mentally tough to the core (1:23:30)
- Her children- 6 and 4 yr. old sons were born and raised during the merger and Amazon deals and she was able to manage through this (1:25:15)
- Set an example for her children (1:26:15)
- Advice to 25 yr. old self- She’s a planner (1:26:55)
- Nothing worked out as planned (1:27:00)
- Opportunities that come up that open doors to places she couldn’t imagine (1:27:30)
- She was chosen to lead the asset management effort at JBG (1:27:50)
- Billboard Statement- Charles Swindoll Quote (see this link)(1:28:50)
- Statement hanging in Jon Gray’s office (1:29:00)
- “Attitude is more important than the facts...”
- 10% on what happens and 90% on attitude
Postscript
- Colin Madden’s Perspectives (1:31:00)
- JBG history
- Microfinance
- Infrastructure at National Landing
- Comparison with Vicki Davis and Jodie McLean
- Elizabeth Cotter
