Kennedy Wilson hires Jamison CEO Jaime Lee for capital markets

Kennedy Wilson has hired Jaime Lee, the former chief executive of Los Angeles-based Jamison, as senior managing director of capital markets and real estate investments. The appointment was announced Wednesday, according to Connect CRE.

Lee's mandate: lead capital formation, keep institutional investors and strategic partners close, and hunt for investment opportunities across Kennedy Wilson's global real estate platform. The move comes as the firm expands its investment management business and courts institutional and private capital.

Lee spent more than two decades at Jamison, finishing as CEO and helping build the firm into one of Southern California's largest privately held real estate owners and developers. Kennedy Wilson Chairman and CEO William McMorrow called her combination of investment expertise, operational experience and private- and public-sector relationships exceptional, saying her ability to form partnerships and navigate complex transactions will be invaluable.

The hire reads as a bet that the person raising money should know what it costs to put it to work. Lee is not a career fundraiser; she ran a large regional portfolio and owned real estate. The title also combines capital formation and real estate investing, two jobs many firms separate. Kennedy Wilson wants the same person finding the capital and deciding what the capital buys. For a firm pushing deeper into investment management, that is a pointed choice.

That background could give Lee credibility with institutions that want operational proof before writing checks. For other platforms chasing the same money, the appointment offers a template: put a former operator, not just a banker, in front of the allocators.