Donald Sheets

Donald Sheets is Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Real Estate Development program at Columbia GSAPP.

Professor Sheets was appointed over a dozen years ago to the faculty of both Columbia University and New York University, where he developed the inaugural graduate-level distressed real estate investing electives within each institution’s curriculum. Donald also is appointed to the faculty of Auburn University and has lectured at Georgetown University, The George Washington University, Harvard University, and The Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His pedagogy spans undergraduate and graduate programs with a curricula of capital markets, distressed investing, structured finance, law, negotiation, and private equity.

Donald has over two decades of leadership experience across a variety of capital structures, asset types, and geographies. In his role as Managing Director at Broadshore Capital Partners, Mr. Sheets serves as Portfolio Manager of the Special Situations Debt Group and is on the Management Committee. SSDG’s team underwrites, services, and resolves investments on behalf of a prominent endowment and a top-decile pension fund.

Mr. Sheets served as Managing Director and Portfolio Manager at Clarion Partners upon its acquisition of AlumCreek Holdings, a private equity platform that he founded. Donald was Senior Principal and co-led the transaction team at Square Mile Capital Management, where he acquired and resolved commercial mortgage whole loans aggregating $2+ billion in outstanding principal balance. Mr. Sheets launched and scaled a special situations commercial real estate platform at Davidson Kempner Capital Management, where he sourced and resolved $1+ billion in capital exposure. Prior to earning an M.B.A., he worked with The Carlyle Group, EastBanc, and Starwood Urban Investments.

Donald is a Board Member and Chair of the Audit Committee of Educational Housing Services - New York’s largest student housing operator – and serves on the Executive Committee of the Harvard Alumni Real Estate Board. He is active with the Commercial Real Estate Finance Council, having prior appointments to the Board of Governors, Co-Chair emeritus of the Education Committee, Co-Chair emeritus of the High Yield and Distressed Realty Assets Forum, and Member of the Editorial Board.

Professor Sheets received a B.B.A. magna cum laude from The George Washington University and received an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.