Eddy O’Brien, CFA is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Blaze Partners. Mr. O’Brien is responsible for the strategic oversight and growth of the Company and jointly manages all day to day activities of Blaze. Specifically, he is actively involved in the creation of investment strategies, managing partnership relationships, capital markets activity, investment origination, and oversight of portfolio performance and execution. In this capacity, he has helped establish Blaze Partners as a pre-eminent boutique multifamily operating platform with a growing footprint across the Southeast and a portfolio approaching $1B in gross asset value.
Prior to co-founding Blaze Partners, Eddy was previously a Managing Director of Investments at Greystar Real Estate Partners, the largest apartment operator in the US, where he served in multiple capacities across the Company’s investment management platform. Most recently, he led the Company’s investment strategy and capital raising activities, where he was actively involved in the creation and capitalization of multiple investment vehicles totaling over $4 billion in equity with strategies across the global rental housing spectrum. In this capacity, Mr. O’Brien also founded and oversaw Greystar’s active adult platform, the Company’s age-qualified rental housing platform, where he led the growth of a $1.5 billion portfolio of development and acquisition projects across the United States. Prior to Greystar, Eddy worked as a REIT analyst with JP Morgan Asset Management in New York where he covered the healthcare and senior housing space and was involved in the management of a $1.5 billion global real estate securities portfolio.
Mr. O’Brien received a BA in economics from the University of Notre Dame, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa. He is also a CFA charterholder and an active member of the Urban Land Institute and New York Society of Security Analysts.
Eddy and his wife reside in Charleston, SC.