Bruce Fernald is a Principal of Vector Real Estate Advisors (Vector) and is also a principal of Black Diamond Capital Advisors, which sources private debt and equity capital for commercial real estate clients. Bruce’s 27-year career includes senior management roles in the real estate investment management and capital markets sectors, complimented by entrepreneurial experience as a development-stage principal and advisor.

From 1981 to 2000, Bruce held positions of increasing responsibility in four prominent real estate investment firms: First Winthrop Corporation, AEW Capital Management, MONY Real Estate, and Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers.

Bruce relocated to Atlanta in 1993 to lead the repositioning of MONY’s $1.4 billion Southeastern debt and equity portfolio. His regional asset management team completed $452 million in debt foreclosures and undiscounted loan payoffs, invested $81 million in capital improvements, and profitably reduced the portfolio to $625 million over a five-year period. Bruce was also a leader in the establishment of ARES, MONY’s wholly owned real estate operating company, which provided asset and property services for the parent and a range of blue chip investment management clients.

As Managing Director and Southeastern regional team leader at Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers, Bruce directed $550 million in regional acquisitions, development and dispositions and his asset management team delivered regional portfolio returns that exceeded the NCREIF index by 24%. Bruce served as a member of the firm’s investment committee during a period when its assets under management grew by 30%.

Following his service at Cornerstone, Bruce led the Atlanta office of Holliday, Fenoglio Fowler, where as Senior Managing Director, he also completed over $415 million of debt and equity placements, including arranging construction financing for the 1.1 million square foot Atlantic Town Center, the retail component of the 138-acre Atlantic Station brownfield development in midtown Atlanta. He subsequently applied the capital markets skills honed at HFF as a private advisor and investor in real estate developments in North Carolina and Florida.

Bruce serves as a director of Benchmark Strategic Services, an independent research and consulting firm serving the commercial/multifamily real estate industry. Benchmark provides strategic consulting utilizing applied research that adds measurable value to client businesses by generating better data to improve decision-making.
Bruce is an active member of the Urban Land Institute and the National Association of Industrial and Office Parks, where as leader of the Capital Markets Education Committee, he established NAIOP’s annual Capital Markets Symposium. He is a member of the Board of Visitors of Emory University and former program leader of Leadership Buckhead.

A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Bruce designed an independent major in Urban Design and Historic Preservation. He also holds a Masters of Arts degree in Historic Preservation from Boston University.