Steve Bass is a real estate investment professional with 25 years of experience in the major North Asian Markets, including extensive investment and portfolio management experience in Japan. Currently he is Lead Portfolio Manager of Nuveen Real Estate’s Japan Alternatives Living Fund. Steve previously led investment teams and served on investment committees for real estate fund managers including CBRE IM, Macquarie Group, and Orion Partners (acquired by abdrn). Steve graduated with a B.A. in economics from Vassar College in New York and a Ph.D. in Urban Planning from UCLA. He studied economics at Gakushuin University in Tokyo on a scholarship from the Japanese Ministry of Education and is fluent in Japanese. Recently, Steve has been working on ways to leverage innovations in data analytics and AI to improve real estate investment decisions, and he has completed multiple certifications in this field. He is a member of the Counselors of Real Estate (CRE) and serves on the Urban Land Institute's APAC Housing Council and Japan Council.

Shiro Nishiura has over 20 years of experience in Japanese real estate investments and portfolio management, encompassing deal sourcing, underwriting and acquisitions, development, project financing, asset management, and project management/value-add initiatives. He has led multiple transactions, covering all stages from sourcing to closing, and has managed projects through their entire life cycle to disposition. Currently, Shiro is Portfolio Manager of Nuveen Real Estate's Japan Alternatives Living Fund.  Prior to Nuveen, Shiro was Transactions and Portfolio Manager at abrdn where he managed one of the largest portfolios of senior housing in Japan, comprising 47 properties and GAV of JPY 75 billion. Previously, Shiro worked at Shinsei Bank and FinTech Global, where he was a Vice President in the Structured Finance Department. He started his career as an appraiser at one of Japan's major appraisal firms. Shiro graduated with a B.A. in Economics from Doshisha University. He holds a Japan real estate brokerage license (Takken) and passed the certification exam for a real estate appraiser.