The Townsend Group, a provider of global investment management solutions focused exclusively on real estate and real assets, today announced their continued expansion into real assets.

The firm appointed Dr. Patricia Rodrigues as a Principal, in the London office, to lead real assets solutions - an area of increasing client and investment demand. Townsend's real assets platform focuses on building top performing global real assets portfolios for institutional investors through a combination of fund investments, secondaries, and co-investments. Dr. Rodrigues will be a member of the Global Macro Strategy Committee and joins an existing team of investment professionals focused on global infrastructure, timber, and agriculture.

Terry Ahern, CEO and Co-Founder of The Townsend Group, said:

"Over the past 15 years, Townsend has advised clients and invested for them into real assets - infrastructure, timber and agriculture - alongside their real estate investments. We are delighted that Patricia has joined the Townsend platform, expanding our strategy, sourcing, underwriting expertise, and track record within our real assets team."

Mr. Ahern added:

"Real assets are an exciting and compelling investment opportunity. With competitive, risk-adjusted returns, diversification benefits, and potential to hedge against inflation, we believe real assets should be part of every investor's portfolio. Across our global platform, we see strong growth in the number of qualified investment managers and quality investment opportunities from which to underwrite and select."

Dr. Patricia Rodrigues has more than a decade of investment management and private equity experience having been responsible for infrastructure and renewable energy transactions on behalf of institutional, private equity, and infrastructure funds totaling in excess of $6.5 Bn. Prior to Townsend, Patricia has held senior investment roles with the UK Government's Green Investment Bank (GIB) and Macquarie Group in London. She began her career with Morgan Stanley within its M&A investment banking team based in London. Dr. Rodrigues holds a Ph.D. from Cambridge University.

Townsend serves an institutional client base providing custom investment solutions to help meet the needs and objectives of their investment programs. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, the firm has offices in San Francisco, London and Hong Kong. As of December 31, 2013, Townsend's regulatory assets under management are approximately $11.4 billion1.