Mr. Shields founded Griffin Capital in 1995, serves as the Company’s Chairman and Co-Chief Executive Officer, and is based in the firm’s headquarters in El Segundo, CA. Griffin Capital is the sponsor of a series of Reg. D Private Placements, including the Griffin Capital Qualified Opportunity Zone Fund and Griffin Capital Development Partners Fund series (collectively representing approximately $1.6 billion of equity committed to supporting the ground-up development of 32 multifamily communities totaling over $4.3 billion in development expense).
Griffin Capital previously sponsored two ‘40 Act Interval Funds: the Griffin Institutional Access® Real Estate Fund and Griffin Institutional Access® Credit Fund, for which Mr. Shields served as the President for each such fund and also served as the Chief Executive Officer of Griffin Capital Advisor, LLC and Griffin Capital Credit Advisor, LLC, each SEC-registered investment advisors and advisor to Real Estate Fund and the Credit Fund, respectively, until such fund advisors were sold to Apollo Global Management, Inc. in May 2022 (representing approximately $6.5 billion in equity).
Griffin Capital has also sponsored or co-sponsored a series of public, non-listed real estate investment trusts including: Griffin-American Healthcare REIT II, Inc. (sold to Northstar Realty Finance, Inc. in December 2014 for $4 billion), Griffin-American Healthcare REIT III, Inc. and Griffin-American Healthcare REIT IV, Inc. (which trusts were merged and the management team internalized into the combined $4.7 billion healthcare REIT in October 2022 and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in February 2024) and Peakstone Realty Trust, Inc. (“PKST”), an entity formed via the April 2019 $4.7 billion merger of Griffin Capital Essential Asset REIT, Inc. and Griffin Capital Essential Asset REIT II, Inc, (the management team was internalized in December 2018 and PKST subsequently acquired via merger $1.1 billion of assets from the former CCITII REIT to form a $5.8 billion enterprise which was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in April 2023).
Mr. Shields formerly served as the Chief Executive Officer of each Griffin Capital Essential Asset REITs until their internalization and served as the Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors until its listing. Mr. Shields also formerly served as a Board of Director’s observer for each of the Griffin-American Healthcare REITs until their internalization. Mr. Shields was formerly the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Griffin Capital Securities, LLC, a FINRA-registered broker-dealer that served as the dealer manager for the REITs and private placements sponsored by Griffin Capital and the exclusive wholesale marketing agent for Credit Fund and the Real Estate Fund. Griffin Capital Securities was also sold to Apollo in a transaction that closed March 1, 2022.
Before founding Griffin Capital, Mr. Shields was a Senior Vice President and head of the Structured Real Estate Finance Group at Jefferies & Company, Inc. in Los Angeles and a Vice President in the Real Estate Finance Department of Salomon Brothers Inc. in both New York and Los Angeles. Over the course of his 35-year plus real estate and investment banking career, Mr. Shields has structured and closed over 300 transactions totaling in excess of $30 billion of real estate acquisitions, financings and dispositions.
Education
Juris Doctorate, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley Law School (f/k/a Boalt Hall School of Law)
MBA, Haas Graduate School of Business, University of California at Berkeley, graduated Summa Cum Laude with Beta Gamma Sigma distinction
BS, Haas Undergraduate School of Business, University of California, graduated Phi Beta Kappa distinction