Paul Say started his career in property in 1979 working as a property manager at Gray and Mulroney and studying as a real estate valuer. From there he went on to work at some of the biggest firms in the industry including JLL, Dexus, Lendlease and has a wealth of experience to share from his incredible career.
How did it all start? Despite qualifying as a licenced property valuer in 1982 Paul realised he has a natural skill for selling and made the move into brokerage. Paul’s first boss, John Mead, was a “wonderful mentor” and while recalling this period Paul shared a story about his first sale… he had stayed late to prepare for his valuation’s exam, and he sees someone outside the office looking at the properties for sale in the window. Reluctantly Paul lets him in and learns he is visiting from out of town looking for an investment property but leaving early in the morning. Paul takes him to visit the property of interest. It is around 9pm completely dark and the unit was hardly visible. As they leave the man Say ‘I’ll take it’ – much to Paul’s surprise given the odd circumstances. The sale goes through, and Paul has made his first transaction. Paul spent his early career continuing to learn the ropes before moving to Chesterton International working for another great mentor, Clive Taylor.
The 80s were a unique time and full of opportunities Paul found himself at the young age of 29 moving to New Zealand as CEO running the NZ arm of Jones Lang Wootton (now JLL). When he arrived, the once prosperous landscape had taken a sharp turn due to the 1987 stock market crash, Paul took charge and helped navigate the business through a difficult and tumultuous period that ultimately led to a strong comeback. Following the recovery Paul moved back to Australia where he was approached by Lendlease.
Lendlease was offering Paul a new opportunity … funds management. “I loved agency. I loved selling” Paul explained but the new challenge of funds management was too exciting for Paul to decline. Following the global property downturn of the early 1990’s it was a unique time especially in funds management as both domestic and foreign banks had large volumes of real estate on their books and began securitising and trading them through REITS (Real Estate Investment Trust). Following a short hold, they began to divest balance sheet assets to new investor groups – while this might seem common now at the time this was the early stages of the funds management industry. Initially Paul thought he would spend 3-5 year in funds management learning as much as he could before returning to agency.
He explained how the change in pace moving from agency ‘service side’ to funds management ‘client side’ was a great learning experience . The move also came with big risks as it meant giving up the strong career trajectory at JLW. But the risk paid off, Paul spent 11 years at Lendlease starting in transactions and building the industrial fund management but ultimately ending up as Group Head of Corporate Finance working directly for the CFO. In this role Paul travelled through the US, Europe and Japan helping advise on capital allocation strategies for many of Lendlease’s global ventures.
In 2007 Paul moved to DB REEF which was Deutsche Bank’s real estate funds and property arm, the company at the time had around $9billion in AUM (Assets Under Management). Paul recalled that during his time DB Reef went through a cultural re-brand and with it came a new name. Victor Hoog Antink, the CEO at the time, wanted to call the company DEXUS which was initially met with some hesitation by many in the company. Vicor challenged anyone to come up with a better name with himself as the final judge. So, no one presented a better alternative and the name stuck. Paul broke down the name’s significance explaining the DE stands for Deutsche which is a reference to the portfolio’s origin at Deutsche Bank, X is meant to be an addition sign but for style purposes was rotated and the US stands for United States where a large part of the portfolio was located. Many years later new CEO Darren Steinberg dropped the lettering to lower case. Paul was CIO (Chief Investment Officer) at Dexus and was responsible for strategy and asset management. One of the exciting parts of his job was travelling around the United States visiting the 1million sqm of industrial sites across the portfolio. Paul mentioned that his favourite place to visit was San Antonio as Dexus had a joint venture with a Mexican Construction company working on new developments in the area, while visiting San Antonio he even got to enjoy a few Spurs games.
At Dexus Paul faced some challenges including helping the firm through the GFC and the difficult re-financing periods that came with it – to learn more about how Paul navigated these challenged you can listen to our full conversation on the PropConnex Spotlight available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
When Victor retired, Paul decided it was time for a change too and began his career as an independent non-executive director (NED). Initially he advised private family offices on their property investments but over time added NED roles sitting on a variety of boards. Working with the likes of Leighton Properties on developing three $400million office towers in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth. Later he sat as a NED for the ASX listed GPT Metro Office Fund that invested in suburban office buildings. Paul also acted as a NED on the SGX listed Frasers Logistics and Commercial Trust (FLCT) that emerged out of the Australand and Frasers merger – listing the Australian logistics assets in Singapore. Across the 8 years he served on their board FLCY grew to over $5billion in assets expanding to Europe, the UK and Singapore. Paul spent a lot of time travelling for inspections as part of this role- talk about a dream job!
Currently Paul chairs the board of the Mirvac Wholesale Office Fund (MWOF) which was originally a long-term fund managed by AMP coming under Mirvac control following a difficult period. Paul has dealt with many problems and challenges throughout his career and yet has always found a way to persevere, when asked about what he thinks has contributed to this Paul simply responded, “common sense”. He explained that putting himself in other people’s shoes and thinking logically, while second nature to him, was a skill that he has leveraged throughout his advisory career helping companies navigate stormy waters and tough transactions.
Before we wrapped up, I was curious to know what advice Paul would give himself if he were just starting his career again. He explained the importance of maintaining balance in your life saying “go hard with your career, but not at the expense of your family and your friends and your health. You can get out of whack from time to time, but make sure you bring it back into balance because you can’t be effective in your career, if you’re not healthy mentally and physically and maintaining good relationships.” A valuable reminder for people at all stages in their career. It was wonderful meeting Paul and learning about the different roles Paul has held and hearing about the many transactions, trips and successes along the way!
