Rajen Shastri has spent over 15 years working in senior management roles across the spectrum of the commercial real estate value chain, from being an investment professional at a global real estate institutional investor to acting as a Principal at an operator/developer. His vision for Akara partners is to offer investors the ability to participate with a vertically integrated real investment firm, allowing them to capture value from the elimination of the inherent information asymmetry between investors, operators and developers.
Prior to founding Akara Partners in 2013, Rajen was a Principal, CIO and Co-COO of Campus Acquisitions (“CA”) a developer and operator of student housing assets. While at CA, Rajen led the capitalization and monetization of over $1.5 billion in student housing assets across the U.S. Akara currently has under construction or in advanced pipeline over $1.0 billion of transactions, primarily in the multifamily space. Rajen has a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. He serves on the Kellogg Alumni Real Estate Board, is a member of YPO Chicago Chapter and is on the Board of Advisors for the James A. Graaskamp Center for Real Estate at the University of Wisconsin School of Business.