One of the largest commercial real estate owners in the U.S. is expanding into the Middle East even as conflict scares some investors away.

Tishman Speyer hired Joseph Ghazal as senior managing director and head of global growth, it announced Thursday. His initial focus will include "identifying and executing acquisition and development opportunities in the Middle East" and expanding its presence in India, according to the firm's release.

Ghazal comes from Prologis — the world's largest industrial real estate owner — where he spent more than 18 years, most recently as chief investment officer. Prologis in July 2025 entered the Middle East with a Dubai office.

Tishman Speyer has $70B in assets across 40 markets in the U.S., Latin America, Europe and Asia, but it doesn't have a presence in the Middle East. In recent years, it has expanded its footprint in the Asia-Pacific region, where it has offices in Mumbai, Seoul, Shanghai and Singapore.

“Over the last decade Tishman Speyer has intentionally and successfully doubled down on our growth and diversification strategy. We have entered new international markets, launched a range of investment vehicles and created new product lines,” Tishman Speyer CEO Rob Speyer said in its release.

“As someone who has spent his career doing exactly this, Joseph is perfectly positioned to help spearhead our next era of growth."

Tishman's decision to focus its next era on the Middle East comes as the region is engulfed in turmoil, from the yearslong Israel-Palestine conflict to the war the U.S. and Israel launched in Iran in February. Even global investment hubs like Dubai have been targets of Iranian strikes and faced economic pain from the war.

One major investor, Walton Global, said in April it was seeing global capital shift away from the Gulf region, and it was courting that money for a new fund to invest in U.S. real estate. This week, Semafor reported that wealthy condo buyers were pulling away from Dubai due to the Iran war.