Ben founded Serakai in 2023 following a successful 25 year career investing in the built environment in Asia during which time he served as a fiduciary on behalf of regional and global principals, institutions and joint-venture partners. For over two decades he has been involved with the development of institutions for contemporary art in Hong Kong.
Ben has invested across sectors in China (including Hong Kong SAR), Japan, Singapore and Thailand and led successful teams in each of these markets. From 2014 to 2022, Ben served as Chief Executive, Asia for Grosvenor, the privately held UK property company. He led the business to deliver in excess of the shareholder’s risk-adjusted financial return targets and on its purpose for the built environment. Ben was previously a Managing Director and the Head of Global Real Estate, Greater China for UBS Global Asset Management, also serving as co-CEO for UBS/Gemdale, its JV residential fund management business in China. Prior to UBS, Ben was with HKR International, the Hong Kong developer, for a decade serving in various roles and ultimately as Executive Director and Head of HKR Asia Pacific, its overseas investment and development arm and hotel management group. Earlier in his career Ben was a development executive with Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group.
Ben has served on the boards of the M+ museum, the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority, and the Tai Kwun Center for Heritage and Arts, serving as Chair of its Programming Committee, as well as on the Asia Pacific Acquisitions Committee for Tate and the Asia Council for the Serpentine Galleries. He is currently Co-chair for the Asia Art Archive and is a Global Governing Trustee and Board Member for the Urban Land Institute.
Ben has an MBA from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University and a BA in International Politics and Economics from Middlebury College.
Serakai was founded in 2023 and strives to be a leader in placemaking.
Building on deep roots in property investment, development, and asset management, as well as drawing from best-in-class specialist capabilities, Serakai strives to be a leader in placemaking: the cross-disciplinary application of experiential design, technology, operational management, stakeholder engagement, programming and curation to give purpose to physical assets and bring spaces to life.
We believe the “places” of the future will be remarkably different from those of today, with value creation increasingly derived from specialist, non-traditional disciplines.
Serakai invests in and works closely with a network of private investors and asset owners to acquire, reposition and develop places – applying creative placemaking to transform assets into engaging spaces that stimulate, intrigue and inspire.
Drawing from our experience in contemporary, globalised Asia, through our multi-disciplinary work we seek to contribute to a better built environment and social sustainability through urban interventions and thought leadership.
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