Title:$10M gift elevates Steers Center with professorships, scholarships

A recent $10 million gift from Bob (B’75 Parent’06, ’08, ’10, ’22) and Lauren (Parent’06, ’08, ’10, ’22) Steers will give graduate students at the Steers Center for Global Real Assets in the McDonough School of Business a competitive edge in a rapidly growing field.

“The Steers’ gift marks a pivotal moment for Georgetown,” says Interim President Robert Groves. “It allows us to lead in the rapidly evolving field of real assets, to expand programs that integrate academic rigor with industry practice, and to prepare students to tackle defining challenges of our time—digital infrastructure, demographics, energy transition, and deglobalization.”

With the future in mind, the gift addresses two strategic commitments:

• To shape the future of teaching, research, and learning, the Steers are endowing a professorship in real estate and another in infrastructure, giving students access to leading practitioners in each field.
• To ensure our student community thrives, the Steers are supporting 20 full-tuition scholarships each year through the Steers Scholars Program for the Master of Science in Global Real Assets.

“We want to put students at the forefront of the transition from real estate to global real assets,” explains Lauren Steers. “The Steers Scholars attract the best and brightest.”

“Georgetown produces leaders who will not only prosper but will give back,” adds Bob Steers, former member of the Georgetown Board of Directors and Board of Regents, and current chair of the McDonough Board of Advisors.

New name and location, improved curriculum and access

Bob and Lauren Steers were the founding donors of the Steers Center for Global Real Estate in 2015 and have continued to work closely with Matthew Cypher, Atara Kaufman Professor of Practice and director of the center.

Earlier this year, the center moved to 111 Massachusetts Avenue, a newly renovated building located on Georgetown’s Capitol Campus, and changed its name to the Steers Center for Global Real Assets to address the seismic shift toward an integrated approach to real estate, infrastructure, and energy transition. The innovative curriculum will prepare students for a wider range of opportunities.

“This year marks a turning point for the Steers Center,” says Matthew Cypher. “We are no longer a real estate center within a business school. We are a platform for thought leadership, talent development, and industry engagement at the intersection of infrastructure, energy transition, and real estate.”

The new name and approach didn’t happen overnight. The center’s leaders met frequently to discuss the future of the industry and the gaps in education. The resulting strategy distinguishes Georgetown in the field.

“There’s an enormous amount of existing traditional infrastructure that needs replacing: ports, airports, toll roads, utilities, bridges. And then there’s more exciting new infrastructure: data centers, cell towers, everything supporting AI. When we started the Steers Center 10 years ago, the ‘real assets’ concept didn’t exist,” Bob Steers explains.

“Last year we decided to transition our mandate to a real asset center and substantially expand our curriculum, knowing that we could be a leading innovator,” he adds. “To do that properly we want to attract elite faculty in both real estate and infrastructure, and we have set up the Steers Scholars program to provide increased access for exceptional graduate students. We’ve taken a cutting-edge approach to promulgating education and career opportunities for investors in real assets.”

“We’ve been working with Matt for over 10 years so we have faith in his leadership. It’s inspiring to see his passion and excitement, not only for what he does but for what’s coming,” says Lauren Steers.

Bob Steers agrees, calling Cypher, McDonough Georgetown Dean Paul Almeida, and Interim President Groves “tremendous leaders, all of whom have been involved with the implementation of this new initiative.”

“Bob and Lauren have been incredibly supportive from our very beginning within the McDonough School of Business. They have consistently equipped us with the capital we need to grow and scale. This latest gift is merely another incredible example of this ongoing commitment to making Georgetown McDonough excellent in the field of real assets,” says Cypher. “This gift will provide us with two critically important resources: skilled human capital and scholarship money to recruit the very best. We intend to be a leader in real assets and the ability to attract the best possible people is of extraordinary value.”

More ‘light-bulb moments’ and opportunities for students

Bob Steers recalls the impact that a great professor can have.

“At some point during my time at McDonough, the light bulb went on that I wanted to be a professional investor,” he says. “It probably goes back to my finance and investing course with Professor Bill Droms.”

The Steers Scholars program will give Georgetown students the opportunity to interact with industry leaders who understand the dramatic changes happening now.

“Through the leadership of Bob Steers and Matthew Cypher, the Steers Center is at the forefront of global real assets education,” says Paul Almeida, dean of the McDonough School of Business. “They have ingrained a values-based approach to the center, with a student-centered curriculum, hands-on learning with a network of firms throughout the industry, and excellence in career preparation for our students.”

Steers explains that as today’s students evaluate all the opportunities in this growing field, Georgetown needs to be prepared to guide them down different paths.

“Will students be interested in replacing bridges and tunnels, or finding energy to power data centers? Will they be investing, or setting policies? It’s an exciting field. There isn’t a bigger universe of opportunities anywhere in the world,” adds Steers.