Joshua Brown is a finance lecturer with the Real Estate Finance and Investment Center at The University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business.

He has been a partner and senior adviser at First Washington Realty Inc. since joining the company in 2012. He recently initiated and oversaw the $3 billion acquisition of Donahue Schriber, which significantly increased the size of First Washington’s portfolio, adding 50 West Coast centers. He also formed a $500 million joint venture with Hillwood, allowing First Washington to enter the burgeoning business of e-commerce retail. Today, First Washington owns more than 150 centers with a value in excess of $8.9 billion, located in 22 states and comprising approximately 20 million square feet.

Starting his career as a practicing attorney, Brown has more than 35 years of experience in retail acquisitions and private equity fund formation. He also has extensive experience as a pension fund adviser and investment banker.

He was a senior managing director and a member of the Management Committee at Eastdil Secured. There, he was responsible for raising private equity for public and private real estate operating companies and forming complex structured finance transactions. While at Eastdil, Brown was involved in more than $15 billion of sales/recapitalization for private equity fund clients. As lead or co-investment banker, he raised more than $5 billion in discretionary or blind-pool equity for such firms as Douglas Emmett, Prologis, Regency Centers, Avalon Bay, Weingarten, LNR, Cargill, Secured Capital Japan, and Lion Industrial Trust. Representative investors include the government of Singapore, Canada Pension Plan, OP Trust, State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio, Commonwealth of Virginia, and Allianz Insurance Company.

Prior to joining Eastdil, Brown held senior management positions with Fayez Sarofim & Co. and Security Capital Group. While at Security Capital Group, he was involved in the formation of Pacific Retail Trust, a 100-center portfolio that subsequently merged with Regency Centers.

Brown has been a guest lecturer at the graduate business schools of Columbia University, Southern Methodist University, and Georgetown University. At Texas McCombs, Brown’s students analyze real estate deals to invest in on behalf of a $10 million private equity fund.

He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Chancellor’s Council of the University of Texas System and a former board member of the Baylor Medical Foundation.