Cliffwater has appointed Sam Walsh as a Managing Director on the team managing its Cascade Real Assets Fund.
Walsh joins from GIC, the Singaporean sovereign wealth fund, where he was Senior Vice President, Investments, within the Americas Real Estate group.
Hiring from sovereign wealth funds into private markets managers has become common as evergreen and semi-liquid vehicles expand. Sovereign investors typically underwrite over very long horizons and across the capital structure, and that discipline transfers usefully into open-ended real asset strategies where entry and exit are continuous rather than fixed.
Real assets remain a core allocation for many family offices, valued for inflation sensitivity and contracted income. The current challenge is less about conviction in the asset class and more about pricing, debt cost and the pace of value adjustment across sectors.
Real assets, real estate strategy and the growth of evergreen structures are covered within the UKFOS Oxford 2026 private investment programme.
UKFOS Editorial · 11 AUGUST 2026