Michael Krupa

Michael H. Krupa is a career institutional real estate investor and developer. From February 2013 to June 2021 he served as President of Gemdale USA Corporation, the U.S. arm of China-listed Gemdale Corporation, and continued as a Senior Advisor to the firm through roughly early 2025. At Gemdale USA — headquartered in Pasadena, California — he led a platform focused on Class-A, ground-up commercial, multifamily rental, and for-sale residential projects in U.S. gateway, high-barrier-to-entry markets.

Before Gemdale, Krupa was a Managing Director at The Milestone Group (March 2009 – February 2013), where he also sat on the firm's Investment Committee. From 2001 to 2009 he was an Executive Director at UBS, holding roles in both the UBS Investment Bank's Real Estate, Lodging & Leisure Group (on the real estate private-equity fundraising team) and at UBS Global Asset Management Real Estate, one of the largest global real estate fund managers. Earlier in his career he worked in real estate investment banking at Salomon Smith Barney/Salomon Brothers, McDonald Investments, and Kidder, Peabody and Company, where he was involved in transactions exceeding $6 billion. He also served on the Board of Directors of Mitsubishi Corp.-UBS Realty Inc., the external asset manager to two Tokyo Stock Exchange–listed J-REITs (a business later sold to KKR in 2022).

Krupa holds a BS from Northeastern University and an MBA from Harvard Business School (Class of 1989), and he is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA). He teaches as an Adjunct Professor of International Real Estate at NYU's Schack Institute of Real Estate (courses including Global Real Estate Markets and Special Topics in Real Estate) and at Fordham University.

He is active in industry and civic organizations, including the Harvard Alumni Real Estate Board and AFIRE (Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate), and has served on the Board of Trustees of the China Institute and as a past board member of the National Multifamily Housing Council and First Workings.

• Invests in direct real estate, not startups — Gemdale USA "develops commercial, multifamily rental and for-sale residential projects, focusing on Class-A ground-up developments in key gateway high-barrier to entry markets."
• Strategy spans the capital stack and lifecycle: acquisition, pre-development and ground-up development, ground lease, recapitalization, refinance, partner buyout, loan purchase, opportunity-zone, and rehabilitation deals.
• Favors joint ventures with established U.S. developers/operators as the route to execute large projects in core gateway cities (e.g., partnering with Hines and Toll Brothers).
• Brings a cross-border capital lens — much of his career has channeled Asian and global institutional capital into U.S. real estate, reflected in his board roles (AFIRE, China Institute) and speaking on Chinese real estate investment into the U.S.
• Background as a CPA and former real estate investment banker/fund manager underpins a disciplined, institutional underwriting approach rather than opportunistic small-check investing.