Speakers

Mr. De Leo has over 23 years of real estate experience across Europe and North America. He joined Benson Elliot in 2008 and is responsible for the firm’s overall management, overseeing regional and sector specialist teams.

Previously, he was a Managing Director at Fortress Investment Group in Frankfurt, where he built and managed a $5.5 billion portfolio and led a team of 40 real estate professionals. Before Fortress, he was Vice President at Oxford Properties Group in Toronto, directing acquisitions across Europe and the US, and earlier held a senior role at Borealis Capital Corp, leading a C$3.8 billion retail business. He began his career in private equity real estate at CIBC.

Mr. De Leo is a member of the GRI Club, Urban Land Institute and Real Estate Balance. He holds degrees from the University of Toronto and Queen’s University.

Benson Elliot

Benson Elliot is a pan-European real estate private equity specialist with two decades of investment experience, deep market knowledge, and in-house operational expertise. In December 2025, Benson Elliot was acquired as part of the acquisition of PineBridge Investments by MetLife Investment Management, the institutional asset management business of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE: MET). Together, the combined business had $741.7 billion in total assets under management as of December 31, 2025 and provides clients around the world with global expertise in public fixed income, private fixed income, real estate, equity, multi-asset solutions and insurance solutions.  For further information, see MetLife Investment Management’s Total Assets Under Management fact sheet for the quarter ended December 31, 2025 available on MetLife’s Investor Relations web page (https://investor.metlife.com).