Mr. Shields founded Griffin Capital in 1995, serves as the Company’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and is based in the firm’s headquarters in El Segundo, CA. Griffin Capital is the sponsor of a series of Reg. D Private Placements, including the Griffin Capital Qualified Opportunity Zone Fund and Griffin Capital Development Partners Fund series (collectively representing approximately $1.4 billion of equity committed to supporting the ground-up development of 30 multifamily communities totaling over $3 billion in development expense).  Griffin Capital previously sponsored two ‘40 Act Interval Funds: the Griffin Institutional Access^® Real Estate Fund and Griffin Institutional Access^® Credit Fund, for which Mr. Shields served as the President for each such fund and also served as the Chief Executive Officer of Griffin Capital Advisor, LLC and Griffin Capital Credit Advisor, LLC, each SEC-registered investment advisors and advisor to Real Estate Fund and the Credit  Fund, respectively, until such fund advisors were sold to Apollo Global Management, Inc. in May 2022 (representing approximately $6.5 billion in equity).  Griffin Capital has also sponsored or co-sponsored a series of public, non-listed real estate investment trusts including: Griffin-American Healthcare REIT II, Inc. (sold to Northstar Realty Finance, Inc. in December 2014 for $4 billion), Griffin-American Healthcare REIT III, Inc. and Griffin-American Healthcare REIT IV, Inc. (which trusts were merged and the management team internalized into the combined $4.7 billion healthcare REIT in October 2022) and Griffin Realty Trust, Inc. (“GRT”), an entity formed via the April 2019 $4.7 billion merger of Griffin Capital Essential Asset REIT, Inc. and Griffin Capital Essential Asset REIT II, Inc, (the management team was internalized in December 2018 and GRT subsequently acquired via merger $1.1 billion of assets from the former CCITII REIT to form a now $5.8 billion enterprise). Mr. Shields formerly served as the Chief Executive Officer of each Griffin Capital Essential Asset REITs until their internalization and currently serves as the Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors.  Mr. Shields also formerly served as a Board of Director’s observer for each of the Griffin-American Healthcare REITs until their internalization. Mr. Shields was formerly the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Griffin Capital Securities, LLC as well, a FINRA-registered broker-dealer that served as the dealer manager for the REITs and private placements sponsored by Griffin Capital and the exclusive wholesale marketing agent for Credit Fund and the Real Estate Fund.  Griffin Capital Securities was also sold to Apollo in a transaction that closed March 1, 2022.

Before founding Griffin Capital, Mr. Shields was a Senior Vice President and head of the Structured Real Estate Finance Group at Jefferies & Company, Inc. in Los Angeles and a Vice President in the Real Estate Finance Department of Salomon Brothers Inc. in both New York and Los Angeles. Over the course of his 35-year plus real estate and investment banking career, Mr. Shields has structured and closed over 300 transactions totaling in excess of $30 billion of real estate acquisitions, financings and dispositions.

Education

• Juris Doctorate, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley Law School (f/k/a Boalt Hall School of Law)
• MBA, Haas Graduate School of Business, University of California at Berkeley, graduated Summa Cum Laude with Beta Gamma Sigma distinction
• BS, Haas Undergraduate School of Business, University of California, graduated Phi Beta Kappa distinction

Professional Licenses

• FINRA Securities Licenses: Series 7, 63, 24 and 27
• Member, California Bar Association (inactive)

Industry Activities

• Chairman Emeritus, Institute for Portfolio Alternatives (IPA)
• Executive Member, Public Non-Listed REIT Council, NAREIT
• Associate Council, Real Estate Roundtable
• Policy Advisory Board Member, Fisher Center for Real Estate
• Former Council Member, Urban Land Institute
• Guest Lecturer, Haas Graduate School of Business, University of California at Berkeley