Toby Phelps, Co-President of BGO - From Lehman Collapsing Next Door to Leading a $100 Billion Real Estate Platform

This week, I sat down with Toby Phelps, Co-President of BGO, who has spent 30 years at the top of European real estate investing and been involved in over $20 billion of transactions across logistics, office, retail, residential and healthcare assets.

In this conversation, Toby traces a career that took him from JLL in the mid-nineties through Morgan Stanley's private equity real estate team, where he was in the building next to Lehman Brothers when the financial crisis hit. He reflects on what that moment did to his understanding of risk, and how the lessons absorbed at Tishman Speyer under Jerry Spier shaped everything that followed.

We explore the strategic evolution from Green Oak to BGO, now approaching $100 billion in AUM, why the merger with Bentall Kennedy made sense when so many others didn't, and what institutional investors are really demanding from managers today.

Toby also makes a compelling case for why European real estate remains one of the most misunderstood opportunities in global capital markets right now and why location, location, location needs a serious update.

And of course, I asked Toby the big question: Who are the People, what Property, and which Place would you invest in if you had £500 million to deploy?

Drop your thoughts in the comments. I would love to hear your take.

Key Topics

✅ From JLL to Morgan Stanley — building the foundations of a 30 year career

✅ Lehman Brothers, the financial crisis and what it really teaches you about risk

✅ Green Oak to BGO — the merger strategy that changed everything

✅ Why Europe is misunderstood by global capital

✅ AI, data science and the US versus Europe gap in real estate investing

Episode Chapters

00:00 - Introduction

00:09 - How Toby Got Into Real Estate

01:58 - Early Career at JLL

05:19 - Joining Morgan Stanley Real Estate

07:47 - Lessons from the Global Financial Crisis

09:49 - Tishman Speyer and Jerry Spier

12:42 - The Genesis of Green Oak

23:07 - Investment Strategy — Top Down Bottom Up

28:09 - Green Oak to BGO

31:36 - Sun Life and the Importance of a Capital Partner

33:57 - BGO's Five European Strategies

37:44 - Private Wealth Capital

42:27 - Location, Asset Quality and Power

44:01 - Is Europe Undervalued by Global Capital

46:20 - Succession Planning and Leadership

49:15 - AI and Data Science in Real Estate

54:00 - Attitude and Advice for the Next Generation

55:15 - The £500 Million Question

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