Jordan Lipton, 31

Jordan Lipton’s initial spark for pursuing a career in commercial real estate finance ignited during the end of his undergraduate days at the University of California at Santa Barbara, where he studied economics and accounting. That’s when a close friend entered the profession, and Lipton’s intrigue grew. 

Lipton at first didn’t pursue the CRE world. But after a little more than two years working in wealth management at Morgan Stanley, the itch returned and he was able to start carving out his path at brokerage George Smith Partners starting in May 2021. He laid the foundation for the switch while at Morgan Stanley’s Beverly Hills office by communicating with the investment banking giant’s real estate division. 

“They gave me a compass of what to study and what to look out for and how to pitch a deal,” Lipton said. “Being an outsider, completely out of the industry, it was really hard to find a path and to really understand the business, and they gave me some really good clues as to what to look through and how to look at deals.”

The advice provided by Morgan Stanley has paid dividends for Lipton, who has arranged more than 20 deals totaling over $2 billion. Lipton’s arrival at George Smith was met less than a year later by an aggressive spike in interest rates, which he said proved to be a key learning experience early in his career. 

“It has shown me the risk that these developers and owner operators are taking on with the structures that they want to achieve,” Lipton said. “It’s helped me really look at the risk and helped me really dial in how private equity looks at deals, how debt funds look at deals, and how banks look at deals and what is important to them with how to structure and advise our clients.