Thomas Garbutt

Thomas Garbutt is the head of Global Real Estate for the TIAA-CREF organization and Teachers Advisors, Inc. He is responsible for the firm's global equity real estate activities including acquisitions, product development, sales and marketing, research, and portfolio and asset management. He joined TIAA-CREF in 1981 and has more than 25 years of experience in the real estate finance and investment industries. Mr. Garbutt is a member of the Urban Land Institute, the Pension Real Estate Association, the National Association of Real Estate Investment Managers and The Real Estate Roundtable. He holds a B.S. in business administration from Binghamton University and an M.S. in real estate investment from New York University. TIAA-CREF is a pension fund manager for people who work in the academic, research, medical, and cultural fields. Led by Tom Garbutt, head of TIAA-CREF Global Real Estate since 2000, the firm is one of the largest commercial real estate owners in the nation. By the end of 2009, it owned $14 billion of primarily high-quality properties in the office, retail, industrial, and multifamily sectors across the U.S., Canada, and Western Europe.