PGIM Real Estate on Thursday said it elevated Joanna Mulford to senior portfolio manager for the firm’s flagship core equity fund in the U.S. Mulford has worked as a portfolio manager for the Newark-based company’s fund for 14 years and has more than 30 years of experience at the company.
The move follows the decision by Frank Garcia, the fund’s former senior portfolio manager, to leave the firm to pursue other interests within the industry. The wider U.S. core equity portfolio management team remains unchanged. Mulford is supported on her portfolio management team by a deep bench of talent with diverse experience and backgrounds, including Portfolio Manager James Glen and Assistant Portfolio Managers Kaya Murray and Lexi Woolf. The team has extensive and diversified real estate and finance experience.
Mulford has been involved in all aspects of managing the fund, including portfolio strategy, investment decision-making and management of the investment team. Over the last 10 years, Mulford has contributed to more than $21 billion in acquisitions and $8 billion in dispositions for the fund.
With Mulford’s appointment, two out of the previous three portfolio managers to lead PGIM Real Estate’s U.S. core equity fund over the last 10 years have been women.
“PGIM Real Estate takes a proactive approach to succession planning with a deliberate focus on building diverse teams of long-tenured individuals,” Cathy Marcus, global chief operating officer and head of the U.S. equity business at PGIM Real Estate, stated. “Joanna’s promotion is a testament to our commitment to maintaining a deep bench of industry-leading talent by recruiting and developing our internal talent into the most senior positions in our organization. Our U.S. core equity fund now has one of the most prominent women-led investment teams in the industry.”
During her tenure, Mulford has held a range of roles across portfolio management, asset management and transactions. Mulford was a pioneer of the firm’s move into alternative sectors of the real estate market such as life sciences, data centers, self-storage and manufactured housing, which are areas that she has been investing in since the 1990s.
PGIM Real Estate is the $206.8 billion real estate investment and financing business of PGIM.
