Join us for an engaging conversation with Professor Sam Chandan, Director of the Chao-Hon Chen Institute for Global Real Estate Finance, as he shares his latest insights on economic trends, infrastructure priorities, and the real estate outlook across the US and UK—offering a forward-looking perspective on what to expect in 2026 and beyond. The program will be introduced and moderated by longtime London Alumni Regional Committee member Aniruddha Barua (MBA ’14), Director of Real Estate and Hospitality Advisory at PJT Partners.

Professor Chandan’s talk coincides with his visit to London alongside a group of MBA students participating in a Global Real Estate Immersion course. The students will be meeting with leading companies and industry organizations while in town, and local alumni will have the opportunity to come together with them for this special session. 

The conversation will be followed by a reception with drinks and light bites.

This event is complimentary. You are welcome to register with a guest.

Aniruddha Barua (MBA '14) is a seasoned hospitality and real estate professional with over 12 years of experience advising clients across EMEA and India. His work spans M&A, capital markets, and secondary transactions, supported by a deep network of relationships with major hospitality groups, real estate corporates, and institutional investors. Prior to his current role as Director of  Real Estate and Hospitality Advisory at PJT Partners, Aniruddha spent several years in Real Estate and Hospitality Investment Banking at J.P. Morgan, where he led EMEA coverage for the hospitality and lodging vertical. He received his MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business in 2014, and has been an active member of the London Alumni Regional Committee since 2018.

Sam Chandan is Director of the Chao-Hon Chen Institute for Global Real Estate Finance at the New York University Stern School of Business, home to the school’s applied real estate research initiatives, industry and policy engagement, and undergraduate and MBA real estate programs.

Prior to joining Stern in February 2022, Professor Chandan was the Larry & Klara Silverstein Chair and academic dean of the Schack Institute of Real Estate at the NYU School of Professional Studies. He is also founder of Chandan Economics, an economic advisory and data science firm serving the institutional real estate industry, a contributor to Forbes, and host of the Urban Lab on Apple Podcasts.

Among his diversity and inclusion initiatives, Professor Chandan is global chair of the Real Estate Pride Council, an association of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender leaders in the professions of the built environment, and a member of the Real Estate Executive Council (REEC). In 2017, he founded the National Symposium of Women in Real Estate (WIRE), which has since grown into one of the industry’s largest annual mentorship forums connecting senior executives and early-career women in real estate.

A Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (FRICS), the Royal Society for Public Health (FRSPH), and the Real Estate Research Institute (RERI), and a contributing member of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM), Professor Chandan’s multifaceted applied research interests address real estate capital market, urban epidemiology, and the preparedness of global cities and other systemically important urban areas in managing and mitigating novel public health threats. He holds an honorary appointment as the Economist Laureate of the Real Estate Lenders Association and has served on the real estate advisory council of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.

While serving as dean of the Schack Institute, Professor Chandan secured the largest gift commitment in the program’s 54-year history to support the creation of a new center in Shanghai, and founded the NYU SPS CREFC Center for Real Estate Finance in collaboration with the Commercial Real Estate Finance Council. A first among academic real estate programs, he created endowed scholarships for the advancement of women in real estate, LGBTQ+ persons in real estate, and for graduate students who attended a Historically Black College or University (HBCU) for their undergraduate degree.

Professor Chandan holds editorial board appointments with the Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law, and Ethics; Real Estate Finance; Commercial Real Estate Finance World; and, Summit Journal. He currently serves as a chair of the International Well Building Institute’s Health Equity Advisory Board.

Prior to founding Chandan Economics, he was the global chief economist at Real Capital Analytics (RCA). During his tenure as chief economist at Reis, now part of Moody’s Analytics, he was part of the executive team that took the company public.

He received his BSc in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, MA in Economics and MSc in Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, and PhD in Applied Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.