Hazelview Investments, a Toronto-based real estate investment manager and owner with offices around the world, including the U.S., Canada and Germany, has made significant changes to its leadership structure, including the appointment of two CEOs whose shared tenure began last week.
With Ugo Bizzarri transitioning to executive chair, the firm said his vacated post will be filled by co-CEOs Corrado Russo and Michael Tsourounis, as part of a multiyear succession plan to support Hazelview's next phase of growth. Russo and Tsourounis will remain in their roles as chief investment officers: the former on Hazelview’s public platform and the latter on its private real estate segment.
“Our mandate remains consistent: to deliver disciplined, long-term value for our clients across both our private and public real estate investment platforms,” Russo told CoStar News in an email. “As co-CEOs, our focus is on maintaining alignment across the business, supporting our teams, and executing with the discipline that has defined Hazelview. This structure reflects how the business operates today, with experienced leadership across both platforms and a strong bench supporting continued execution.”
Hazelview has $10.9 billion in assets under management, employing over 100 investment professionals who oversee more than 500 properties, including more than 20,000 apartment units in Canada after more than a quarter-century in business.
The co-CEOs see the Greater Toronto real estate market remaining fundamentally strong over the long-term, owing to the region’s indomitable fundamentals such as population growth, a diverse economy and its reputation as a global metropolis. However, Hazelview isn’t taking the current headwinds for granted; higher interest rates and evolving capital market conditions have forced it to become more selective in its investments. But herein is opportunity, too.
“Our approach is to remain disciplined and selective — deploying capital where we have strong conviction while maintaining flexibility to take advantage of opportunities as markets,” Tsourounis said in an email. "One of our strengths is the ability to invest across both public and private real estate, which gives us flexibility and perspective through different parts of the cycle and allows us to continue delivering for our clients over the long term.”
Russo has spent more than two decades building and leading Hazelview’s public real estate segment, during which time he’s experienced bull and bear markets. And as a member of Hazelview’s executive committee, he’s no stranger to working with Bizzarri and Tsourounis.
For his part, Tsourounis has spent his entire career at Hazelview, beginning as an analyst and then helping develop the firm’s private real estate platform from scratch — an experience he credits with inculcating in him the brass tacks of investments, development and operations. He and Russo have for years consulted each other on some of the most consequential decisions in the company’s history, he added.
Co-chief executives make for an uncommon coupling, but they said years of familiarity have primed them.
“Importantly, this isn’t a new working relationship — we’ve been working together on firm-wide decisions for many years and are strongly aligned on strategy, culture, and long-term priorities,” Russo said. “We also have strong leadership across both platforms, with senior team members taking on expanded responsibilities, ensuring day-to-day investment execution remains highly focused while also allowing us to take on broader firm-wide leadership.”
Tsourounis added that “we each retain decision-making authority within our respective platforms and make firm-wide decisions jointly as Co-CEOs. Where needed, we would engage the Board. For our clients and partners, this structure reinforces continuity — same teams, same processes, and the same disciplined approach.”