FRED COOPER
MPP '84
Fred Cooper is Chief Executive Officer of Fin River Advisors, a boutique real estate firm that connects capital and companies, and advises real estate organizations on strategy and growth.
A Senior Fortune 500 Executive for over 30 years, Fred has extensive wide-ranging entrepreneurial leadership experience in Real Estate, Finance, Business Development, Strategy, and Relationship Building in dynamic world-class private sector, non-profit and government organizations. He has fueled growing companies, navigated multiple real estate cycles, and built trusted relationships around the world.
Fred recently concluded 32 years at NYSE-listed, Fortune 500 Toll Brothers as Senior Vice President - Finance, International Development & Investor Relations, and Senior Vice President - Strategic Partnerships.
Hired in 1993 to launch, lead, and grow Toll Brothers’ Finance & Investor Relations Department, he built great teams and raised $40 billion to fuel Toll’s growth from a $200+ million revenue regional to a $10+ billion national Fortune 500 homebuilder and land developer.
As Head of Investor Relations and Media Spokesman, he helped build Toll into a trusted, globally-recognized brand named World’s Most Admired Homebuilder 8 times by Fortune Magazine, and was voted to Institutional Investor’s All-American Executive team 12 times.
As Finance lead, Fred helped scale several Toll Start-ups: City Living, Toll’s urban condo business which has now built 45 high-rise buildings; Apartment Living, which has grown to become a national urban and suburban rental developer; Gibraltar Capital, which opportunistically bought $2 billion of distressed assets during The Global Financial Crisis; and a current in-house strategy to redevelop obsolete commercial properties for residential development.
Globally, Fred led Toll’s partnering and expansion exploration in Asia, Latin America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Canada, and brought foreign capital into $2 billion of U.S. deals. He has worked with The World Bank, Wharton's International Housing Finance Program, Stanford University's Institute for Innovation in Developing Economies (SEED), and ACORN, East Africa’s largest student housing developer. He has hosted developers from 20 nations in the U.S.
Prior positions include Director of Corporate Finance & Planning for the real estate investment arm of a Forbes Private 50 Family Office from 1989-1993, Senior Vice President of Finance & Business Development at New York City’s Economic Development Bank from 1984-1989, and community-based Affordable Housing and Economic Development roles in Brooklyn and the South Bronx from 1980-1983.
Born and raised in NYC, Fred is a graduate of Brown University, Harvard University's Kennedy School, and New York University's Stern School of Business. He is a frequent University lecturer and mentor, and industry conference panelist and moderator. He has had articles published in The Real Estate Finance Journal and reviews published in The Harvard Real Estate Review.
Fred serves on Harvard’s Alumni Real Estate Board, University of Wisconsin’s Graaskamp Center Real Estate Board, on the NYC Advisory Board of The Community Builders, on the U.S. arm of The Kenya Community Development Foundation Board, Asian Real Association of America NYC Chapter Board, and as a Global Governing Trustee of the Urban Land Institute. He has had extensive Board engagement experience, and is an advisor and mentor to mixed-use, affordable and market rate housing developers in the U.S., Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
