Latest news with #ChristopherMerrill
Arabian Post
10-06-2025
- Business
- Arabian Post
Harrison Street Begins Middle East Push From Abu Dhabi
Arabian Post Staff -Dubai Harrison Street, a US-headquartered real assets investment firm with over $56 billion in assets under management, has formally expanded into the Middle East by establishing an office within the Abu Dhabi Global Market, after receiving regulatory approval from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority. The move is being viewed as a strategic step to tap into the region's institutional capital base and aligns with Abu Dhabi's ambitions to attract global investment managers. The firm's new office, located at ADGM's Al Sila Tower, is expected to anchor its regional operations and serve as a platform for growth across the Gulf and wider MENA region. Harrison Street becomes the latest in a line of global asset managers to choose Abu Dhabi as a regional headquarters, following similar moves by BlackRock, Brevan Howard, and Apollo Global Management. The announcement underscores the appeal of ADGM as a regulated environment that offers tax benefits, legal certainty, and direct access to sovereign wealth and pension funds. ADVERTISEMENT Christopher Merrill, co-founder and CEO of Harrison Street, described the expansion as a natural extension of the firm's long-term growth strategy. He emphasised that the company is aiming to offer institutional investors across the Middle East access to thematic investment opportunities in alternative real assets, including student housing, senior living, healthcare infrastructure, and digital assets. Merrill said the firm sees 'substantial appetite among Gulf-based investors for exposure to long-duration, inflation-protected assets with stable yield profiles.' While Harrison Street has traditionally focused on North America and Europe, its new ADGM base signals an intention to deepen partnerships with investors in the Gulf region. The decision is also part of a broader effort to diversify funding sources and tailor strategies that align with regional priorities such as healthcare expansion, demographic shifts, and digital infrastructure. The ADGM licence will enable Harrison Street to carry out regulated investment activities and offer tailored asset management services to qualified investors in the UAE and beyond. According to the firm's regional head, who is set to be announced in the coming weeks, the Abu Dhabi office will focus on both capital raising and direct investment origination, particularly in sectors aligned with government-backed development goals across the Gulf. Industry observers say Abu Dhabi's financial centre has matured into a viable launchpad for international firms targeting sovereign and institutional capital. With assets under management in ADGM growing to over $1 trillion this year, the financial centre is increasingly positioning itself as a global hub for private equity, venture capital, and asset management. Harrison Street's entry follows a regulatory trend where ADGM has been accelerating approvals for asset managers, family offices, and hedge funds in a bid to rival more established global centres. Global interest in Middle East capital pools has surged, with firms across Europe and the US actively seeking to establish an on-the-ground presence. Harrison Street's thematic investment strategy, focused on secular trends such as ageing populations and technological adoption, is seen to resonate well with Gulf investors pursuing diversification beyond traditional energy-linked assets. Merrill indicated that the firm will look to build co-investment partnerships and joint ventures with local institutions, leveraging its experience in structuring real estate and infrastructure funds across developed markets. He also hinted at the possibility of localised strategies that may include greenfield development and operating partnerships in sectors like education and senior care, particularly in markets undergoing demographic transition such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE. ADGM authorities welcomed the firm's entry as further validation of Abu Dhabi's rising influence in the global investment ecosystem. The financial centre has actively courted global asset managers through a mixture of regulatory reforms, dual licensing frameworks, and strategic partnerships with Abu Dhabi Investment Office and Mubadala.
The National
10-06-2025
- Business
- The National
US asset manager Harrison Street receives licence to open ADGM office
Harrison Street, a US-based real estate and infrastructure investment manager, has entered the Middle East market with the opening of an office at Abu Dhabi's financial hub ADGM. The company with $56 billion in assets under management has received a financial services licence from ADGM's regulator, the Financial Services Regulatory Authority, Harrison Street said on Tuesday. The move is part of the company's global expansion and positions it to 'better serve current and prospective clients in the region over the long-term', it said. Harrison Street is expanding into the Middle East market at a time when regional investors are increasingly seeking economic diversification and a broader range of international opportunities, including global real assets exposure, the company said. 'While we've been providing Middle Eastern investors with exposure to demographic-driven real asset strategies for quite some time, we are excited to now formalise our presence in the Middle East,' Christopher Merrill, co-founder, chief executive of Harrison Street, said. Harrison Street joins a growing list of asset managers, insurers, financial institutions and investment houses that have chosen to set up a base in the financial hub of UAE capital, to use it as the platform for their regional expansion. In February, German asset manager Patrizia was granted approval by the FSRA to start operations at ADGM. The Augsburg-based company, which has about €55 billion ($57.7 billion) in assets under management, plans to arrange and advise real estate investments for clients in the region. The two real estate managers add to a stream of companies including BlackRock that are eager to tap into the Middle East's growing investment market. New York-based BlackRock, the world's top asset manager with nearly $11.5 trillion in AUM, in November received a commercial licence to operate at ADGM. In September, ADGM welcomed its first trillion-dollar asset managers: PGIM, the global asset management business of the New York Stock Exchange-listed Prudential Financial, and Chicago investment firm Nuveen, with both aiming to expand their operations and client bases in the Middle East. The flurry of new additions has pushed the number of firms in ADGM higher during the first quarter of this year, with assets under management also increasing by 33 per cent annually, the financial hub said earlier this month. The total number of entities operating at ADGM rose by 43 per cent annually to 2,781 in the first three months of this year, it said in a statement. At the end of last year, the financial zone had 2,381 operational entities.
Associated Press
11-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
Writers Protest Fed Crackdown On Iowa University Writing Program
IOWA CITY, Iowa, March 10, 2025 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — In a letter delivered this week to Darren J. Beattie, a senior official at the US State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the acclaimed Todos Santos Writers Workshop (TSWW) decried the bureau's recent cancellation of federal grants to the International Writing Program (IWP) at the University of Iowa. TSWW co-director Rex Weiner said 'Since 1967, over 1,600 writers from more than 160 countries have participated in the University of Iowa's renowned program. At home and abroad, IWP is a unique conduit for the world's literatures, and the administration's attack on this writing program is an attack on writers everywhere.' IWP Director Christopher Merrill, who also serves as TSWW's poetry workshop instructor, said in a UI statement that while the 58-year partnership with the federal government has ended, the university remains dedicated to the program's mission to 'promote mutual understanding through creative writing and literature.' The federal grant to IWP of nearly $1 million 'was roughly equal to what the writing program would have contributed to the U.S. economy next year,' according to the Iowa City Press-Citizen, noting the university's statement that 90% of funds associated with the IWP's federal grants are spent domestically, much of it in Iowa City, a UNESCO City of Literature. TSWW co-director Jeanne McCulloch said, 'As an international creative writing program with workshops in Mexico, France, and online globally, TSWW will continue to work with Christopher Merrill to explore ways to help advance IWP's goals, and support writers around the world.' About the Todos Santos Writers Workshop: Now in its 13th year, the acclaimed Todos Santos Writers Workshop is a creative writing workshop with classes in fiction, memoir, and poetry based in the town of Todos Santos, Baja California Sur, MX, with its annual Todos Paris workshop upcoming May 18 – 24 in Paris, France. Keywords: Education and Schools, Todos Santos Writers Workshop, University of Iowa,US State Department Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, IOWA CITY, Iowa Send2Press® Newswire. Information is believed accurate but not guaranteed. Story ID: S2P124631 APNF0325A
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
University of Iowa International Writing Program sees federal funding cuts
The University of Iowa International Writing Program will end certain programs and shrink its next cohort after seeing federal funding cuts. (Photo courtesy of the University of Iowa International Writing Program) One of the University of Iowa's premiere writing programs has seen its federal funding cut, the university announced Thursday, a blow causing the closures of programs and smaller cohorts. The UI International Writing Program announced online that as of Feb. 26, grants it had received from the U.S. Department of State and Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs had been terminated. According to a notice cited in the release, programs funded by the grants 'no longer effectuate agency priorities,' and do not hold 'with agency priorities and national interest.' Canceled federal funding amounts to nearly $1 million, the university stated in a news release, the same amount that would have been generated for the U.S. economy by the program in the next year, as more than 90% of federal grant dollars are spent domestically. 'We are devastated by the abrupt end of this 58-year partnership and are working closely with the Office of General Counsel and the university's grant accounting office to review the terminations, understand their full impact, and respond in the best interest of the organization,' International Writing Program Director Christopher Merrill said in the release. 'Despite this disappointing turn of events, the IWP's mission remains the same and, with the help of a small number of other partners, we will still hold a 2025 fall residency as we also pursue new sources of funding.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Separate from the UI's Iowa Writers' Workshop, the International Writing Program brings international writers and literature to Iowa City and exposes American writers to cultures from across the globe, according to its website. Its main program is an 11-week residency that does not include academic credits. As a result of the cuts, the writing program will discontinue its summer youth program, Between the Lines, the Emerging Voices Mentorship Program, distance learning courses and more, according to the release. The fall 2025 residency cohort, which has traditionally brought in around 30 writers, will be cut in half. 'The Fall Residency is an 11-week program that brings established international writers to the UI campus, providing them with time to produce literary work, while also introducing the social and cultural fabrics of the United States,' the release stated. 'The experience enables them to take part in American university life and creates opportunities for them to contribute to literature courses both at the UI and across the country.' South Korean author and 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature winner Han Kang attended the program in 1998, according to a news release, joining fellow program participants, Nobel Prize-winners and novelists Orhan Pamuk, born in Istanbul, and Chinese author Mo Yan. Founded in 1967 by Paul Engle and Hualing Nieh Engle, both of whom were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976, the release stated the program has welcomed more than 1,600 writers from more than 160 countries. The program stated in its announcement it will pursue new funding opportunities in the light of these losses and has other established funding streams in donors, grants, nongovernmental organizations and 'foreign ministries of culture.' The UI is also weathering uncertainty with other federally funded programs, especially research projects with National Institutes of Health grants. According to a March 5 update, Judge Angel Kelley of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts has issued a preliminary injunction on a proposed 15% cap on indirect costs for NIH grants and contracts. The update stated the university will 'continue to submit research proposals according to our federal negotiated indirect cost rate agreement.' 'Considering the irreparable harm likely to befall similarly situated nonparties, the chaos that would result both for institutions and NIH from a patchwork of injunctions, the diffuse nature of the Plaintiffs, and the nature of the suit, a nationwide preliminary injunction is the appropriate and reasonable remedy,' Kelley wrote in her ruling. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
