Andrew Yam
MDes Real Estate '17
CURRENT ROLE
Andrew is Senior Managing Director and Global Head of Capital Markets at American Landmark, a PERE Top 100 institutional real estate investment management firm and vertically integrated owner-operator focused on the U.S. residential sector, with over 100,000 multifamily units owned and managed and a 30-year track record. He oversees the firm’s institutional investment management function, encompassing global institutional capital formation across four continents, portfolio and risk management, analytics and diligence, research, and investor relations. He serves on the Investment Committee and Senior Executive Management Committee.
CAREER: DIRT TO DOLLARS
Andrew’s 23-year career bridges the full real estate lifecycle, from dirt to dollars, spanning architecture, ground-up development, operations, investment banking, private equity acquisitions, portfolio management, and global institutional capital formation, with over $9 billion in transactions executed with U.S. and international institutional investors. His experience covers the full capital stack (equity, preferred equity, mezzanine, senior debt) across property types (multifamily, condominium, industrial, retail, hospitality, office, mixed-use, land) and strategies (opportunistic, value-add, core plus, credit, special situations) for U.S. and international pension funds, endowments, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds, and family offices through closed-end funds, open-end vehicles, co-investments, and separate accounts.
EXPERIENCE
He began at Sun Hung Kai Properties (SHKP), the Euromoney-awarded World’s Best Real Estate Developer (A+/A1 rated, ~$105 billion in assets), selected as one of four from over 3,000 applicants worldwide for the firm’s general management rotational program across core real estate functions. He led ground-up development of the $1.2 billion Shanghai International Finance Centre, a Cesar Pelli-designed, 4-million-square-foot mixed-use landmark anchored by the HSBC headquarters, Ritz-Carlton, and Hermès, managing 30+ consultants across 7 countries and a landmark disposition transaction to HSBC.
He subsequently held roles in cross-border mergers and acquisitions at Citigroup and in real estate private equity acquisitions at Lehman Brothers, where he underwrote investments across Asia for the then $9.7 billion global fund. At Northwestern, he worked with the University’s Investment Office evaluating real estate fund managers for the ~$15 billion endowment.
At Phoenix Property Investors, then Asia’s 10th largest real estate private equity firm, he executed $4.8 billion in transactions across Asia, including launching the firm’s Shanghai office as General Manager and building an 80-person team overseeing $1 billion+ in AUM.
At Cottonwood Group, a U.S.-based real estate private equity firm, he played a central role in $3.3 billion in transactions across the capital stack, including landmark mixed-use developments, credit investments, and acquisitions. He was instrumental in raising a $1 billion real estate special situations fund at 2x the original target without placement agents, led consultant diligence processes earning approval from leading U.S. pension fund consultants, launched an inaugural evergreen vehicle, and managed relationships across the firm’s U.S. and international capital base.
He later founded PXPillar Capital, rooted in Purpose, eXcellence, and the Pillars of Trust, an institutional capital advisory firm advising investment managers on institutional capital formation strategy. Through this work, he advised American Landmark, found alignment in shared values and a commitment to institutional excellence, and later joined the firm full-time.
EDUCATION
Harvard Graduate School of Design, M.Des. (Real Estate Investment), with coursework at Harvard Business School and Harvard Kennedy School. Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, MBA (Finance, Strategy, Entrepreneurship). The University of Hong Kong, B.A. Architectural Studies, M.Arch. UC Berkeley exchange via Hong Kong Land scholarship.
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
Harvard Alumni Real Estate Board (HAREB), Board Member. Robert Toigo Foundation, Fellow. Pension Real Estate Association (PREA), Member. Institute for Real Estate Operating Companies (iREOC), Member.
PERSONAL
Born in Pittsburgh and raised in Hong Kong, Andrew’s professional career spans 10 years in Asia and 13 years in the United States. He has lived in six cities before making Boston home over a decade ago, where he lives with his wife and three children. He is trilingual in English, Cantonese, and Mandarin.
He is a golf coach with First Tee, a national youth development organization that builds character, self-confidence, and resilience in children ages 7 to 18 through the game of golf and a life skills curriculum. He serves on the Development Committee for Science Club for Girls (SCFG), a Cambridge-based nonprofit providing free STEM programs for girls from underrepresented communities. Only 4% of scientists and engineers in the United States are Black and Latina women; SCFG works to close that gap. He also serves on the Milton Academy Fund Parents Committee.
HAREB
Andrew joined HAREB as a Board Member to contribute his full-lifecycle real estate experience and global institutional investment management expertise to the Harvard real estate
