Leadership Changes Hit 2 Apollo Real Estate Funds

A pair of senior leaders of Apollo Global Management’s real estate business are leaving the firm, three months after the investment giant said it was shutting down its publicly traded mortgage REIT. 

Jess Lipsey intends to resign at the end of September from his roles as CEO, president and director of Apollo Realty Income Solutions. He is being replaced in all three roles by Bert Crouch, who joined Apollo in 2025 as the head of its real estate equity platform. 

Apollo is also parting ways with Spencer Propper, who resigned as the portfolio manager of the Apollo Diversified Real Estate Fund, although Propper will stay on at the firm through March 31 to assist with the transition, AltsWire first reported. 

Jonathan Stachel, a principal in Apollo’s real estate group, was promoted to associate portfolio manager of the fund as part of Propper’s exit. Stachel joins Stuart Rothstein, chief operating officer of Apollo’s real estate group, as the manager of the fund portfolio. 

Apollo declined to comment on the changes. 

Apollo Realty Income Solutions' portfolio was half equity assets and 43% credit holdings, with the rest of the capital deployed in securities as of the end of June, according to its website. Industrial and residential assets make up 64% of the REIT’s portfolio, with data centers accounting for 15% of holdings and the rest split between other asset types. 

ARIS targets stabilized assets across the U.S., with a focus on income-generating real estate and select mortgage origination from Apollo’s real estate credit platform. 

Apollo Diversified Real Estate Fund is a closed-end interval fund — meaning it buys back shares at a set rate each quarter — focused on private equity investments, which make up 67% of the portfolio, and debt. The actively managed portfolio had $3.3B in assets under management at the end of July.

The staffing changes come after Apollo announced in June plans to liquidate Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance Inc., a diversified debt REIT trading under the ticker ARI, six months after it reached a $9B deal to sell most of the REIT's loan portfolio to Athene Holding Ltd., an insurance company and Apollo subsidiary.

Apollo isn’t the only investment giant seeing senior staff rotate out. Blackstone Global Head of Real Estate Nadeem Meghji is leaving the asset management giant after nearly two decades at the firm. Meghji is being replaced by David Levine, co-head of Blackstone's real estate group in the Americas, and Giovanni Cutaia, president of the real estate business.

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