Camille Douglas

Lecturer in Real Estate

Lecturer and Senior Fellow in Real Estate

CAMILLE J. DOUGLAS is a senior executive in the real estate industry with over 35 years’ experience in real estate development and finance. Her work has included the development of iconic urban mixed use projects as well as corporate and project based acquisitions, joint ventures and financing, including pioneering work on commercial mortgage backed securities and cross border equity investment.

Camille is currently a Senior Managing Director, Acquisitions and Development, at LeFrak. Since joining the firm in January 2010, she has been responsible for strategic real estate acquisitions and development outside New York and led the company’s expansion into the Miami market in 2011 after focusing on the residential sector in the UK in 2010-2011. She is currently responsible for the ongoing development of SoLeMia, LeFrak’s 184 acre, $4 billion, master planned, mixed use project in North Miami.

From 1999 to 2010, she was the Founding Principal of Mainstreet Capital Partners, specializing in transaction oriented real estate investment advisory services to blue chip real estate developers and institutional investors around the globe. Her clients included the Canary Wharf Group in the UK, Cyrela Commercial Properties (“CCP”), a Brazilian listed company, Westbrook Partners in the UK, Cadillac Fairview and IPC US Income Commercial REIT in Canada, Boston Properties, Boston Consulting Group and Yale and Brown Universities in the US and Westcourt Real Estate in India.

From 1982-1994, she was a Senior Vice President, Finance at Olympia & York, responsible for the financial strategy and execution of all US structured debt and equity financing relating to commercial development projects. In that capacity, she pioneered the use of commercial mortgage-backed securities including Eurobonds and a reverse dual currency Yen bond. Prior to joining O&Y, she was a Vice President at Morgan Stanley executing portfolio dispositions, M&A transactions, and development joint ventures.

Ms. Douglas serves on the Board of Directors of Starwood Property Trust (STWD).

Ms. Douglas was an Adjunct Professor in Finance and Economics at Columbia Business School from 2005 to 2022 where she taught a course on Global Real Estate Investment. She has previously taught at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and has guest lectured at Harvard Business School, Yale School of Management, the Wharton School and the Tuck School.

Ms. Douglas received her Master of Urban Planning degree from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University in 1977.  Her studies there included coursework at both Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School.  Ms. Douglas received a BA from Smith College in 1973, and was an exchange student at Williams College 1970-71. In addition, she studied land use and environmental law at the University of British Columbia School of Law and Albany Law School, respectively.