Cliffwater taps GIC's Sam Walsh for Cascade real assets team

Cliffwater has hired Sam Walsh as managing director on its Cascade Real Assets Fund team, IREI first reported. Walsh joins from GIC, where he most recently served as senior vice president for investments in Americas real estate.

At GIC, his tenure ran across real estate equity and credit, including a term as head of multifamily and retail in North America. He also held senior investment responsibilities for other property types, per the report. This is an investor who has underwritten debt and equity directly, not one who supervises allocations from a distance.

The report gives no size for the Cascade fund and no breakdown of its real asset categories. The hire itself is the substantive disclosure. Cliffwater reached into GIC's Americas real estate group for a managing director who can source, underwrite, and manage property deals. That places a direct-deal investor behind the vehicle, at a moment when real assets funds live or die on the team doing the work.