Dream Office REIT

Dream Office REIT is an unincorporated, open-ended real estate investment trust. Dream Office REIT is focused on owning, leasing and managing well-located, high-quality office properties.

Our Objectives

We have been and remain committed to:

• Managing our business to provide cash flows and superior risk-adjusted returns, while managing our assets to maximize value over the longer term;
• Continual improvement in the quality of our portfolio by investing in assets through upgrades, intensification and redevelopment in order for our buildings to be attractive to our tenants and selectively disposing of assets with lower potential for long-term income growth;
• Building and maintaining a strong, flexible and resilient balance sheet; and
• Maintaining a REIT status that satisfies the REIT exception under the SIFT legislation in order to provide certainty to unitholders with respect to taxation of distributions.

Property Management

Dream Office Management Corp. provides real estate services – including property management and leasing – to properties owned by Dream Office REIT as well as for other property owners.  This structure provides us with the opportunity to earn revenue and profits from existing and future third party management contracts. We also believe that real estate is an operating business that requires active management in order to enhance value, increase yield and reduce risk to investors.

Learn more about Dream Office Management

Our team is made up of the industry’s smartest, most dedicated, knowledgeable and experienced real estate investment, portfolio management and financial professionals that have a proven track record of creating value.

Michael J. CooperChairman & Chief Executive Officer

Jay JiangChief Financial Officer

Gordon WadleyChief Operating Officer

Ayesha ShafiqSenior Vice President, Real Estate Investments

Mr. Michael J. Cooper is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Dream Office REIT. He is also the President and Chief Responsible Officer of Dream Unlimited Corp. (“Dream”), and founder of Dream Asset Management Corporation (“DAM”), Dream Office REIT’s management services provider.  He has an extensive track record in the real estate industry dating back to 1986. He helped found DAM (formerly Dundee Realty Corporation) in 1996. Under his leadership, the business has grown to $9 billion of commercial real estate, residential land and housing development and renewable energy infrastructure assets under management. Among his accomplishments, Mr. Cooper is responsible for the formation of four TSX-listed investment trusts: Dream Office REIT, Canada’s largest office REIT; Dream Global REIT, a Canadian REIT investing in commercial real estate assets exclusively outside of Canada; Dream Industrial REIT, a pure-play industrial REIT in Canada; and, most recently, for the formation of Dream Hard Asset Alternatives Trust (“Dream Alternatives”), a mutual fund trust focused on hard asset alternative investments. He earned a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Western Ontario and a Master of Business Administration from York University.  Mr. Cooper currently sits on the board of directors of Dream Unlimited Corp., Dream Alternatives, Dream Industrial REIT, Dream Office REIT, EL Financial Ltd., and Real Property Association of Canada (“REALpac”).

Mr. Jay Jiang is the Chief Financial Officer of Dream Office REIT. Mr. Jiang was formerly the Senior Vice President of Strategic Finance of Dream and was responsible for corporate development, strategy, finance and investor communications for the Dream Entities. Prior to joining Dream, Mr. Jiang was part of the equity research team at BMO Capital Markets covering the Canadian real estate sector. Previously, he was a manager at Ernst & Young LLP in the financial services assurance and advisory group. Mr. Jiang is a Chartered Professional Accountant, Chartered Accountant, and has both a Master of Accounting and Bachelor of Accounting and Financial Management degree from the University of Waterloo.

Mr. Gordon Wadley is the Chief Operating Officer of Dream Office REIT.  Prior to this role Mr. Wadley was Senior Vice President, Commercial Properties. Mr. Wadley provides leadership to the overall asset strategy of Dream Office REIT’s Toronto portfolio. Mr. Wadley has held progressively senior positions within the company since he joined in 2011. Most recently he was Vice President, Leasing for Toronto and Southwestern Ontario and prior to that he oversaw the performance of Dream Office REIT’s leased assets in a number of major markets throughout Canada. During Mr. Wadley’s career he has been involved in several high-profile transactions and pursuits pertaining to leasing, development and asset management. Prior to joining Dream Office REIT, Mr. Wadley worked in commercial brokerage for CB Richard Ellis providing commercial representation to corporate clients both domestic and international. Mr. Wadley earned a degree from Acadia University and earned his MBA in Real Estate Leadership from the University of Fredericton, New Brunswick.

Ms. Ayesha Shafiq is Senior Vice President, Real Estate Investments, and she is responsible for overseeing investments for Dream Office REIT and Dream Industrial REIT. Over the span of her career Ms. Shafiq has completed over $7.5 billion of transactions across Canada and the United States with a focus on office and industrial asset classes. Prior to joining Dream, Ms. Shafiq worked at Scotia Capital in the prime brokerage and corporate finance groups. Ms. Shafiq graduated from the Honours Economics program at Wilfrid Laurier University and obtained her Masters of Business Administration from the same institution.

Our board of trustees is made up of highly experienced, dedicated and knowledgeable professionals who each have expertise in all key areas of Dream’s businesses. Our board currently consists of 7 members:

Detlef Bierbaum

Donald CharterIndependent Lead Trustee

Michael J. CooperChair

P. Jane Gavan

Robert Goodall

The Hon. Dr. Kellie Leitch

Karine MacIndoe

Mr. Detlef Bierbaum is a corporate director with extensive experience in the banking and financial services industry. Prior to his retirement in March 2010, Mr. Bierbaum was a Member of the Supervisory Board with Bankhaus Sal. Oppenheim jr. & Cie and from 1991 to 2008, he held the position of Managing Partner with responsibility for asset management. In addition, from 2002 to 2008, he was also responsible for investment banking of Bankhaus Sal Oppenheim jr. & Cie. Prior to 1991, he was the Chief Financial Officer of the Nordstern Insurance Companies based in Cologne. He is a member of the Board of Directors of a number of companies in the asset management and banking sectors based in Germany, England, Luxembourg and the U.S. Mr. Bierbaum is a graduate of the Universities of Cologne and Munich where he studied commercial banking and business administration.

Mr. Charter is the Independent Lead Trustee of Dream Office REIT.  He is currently the Chair of the Board of IAMGOLD Corporation and is a director of Lundin Mining Corporation and International Petroleum Corporation.  Mr. Charter is an executive with experience in a number of sectors including mining (precious metals, base metals, iron ore, coal), oil & gas, real estate and financial services. He was the President, Chief Executive Officer and a Director of Corsa Coal Corp. from August 2010 to August 2013. Corsa is a metallurgical coal mining company listed on the TSX.V with operations in Pennsylvania. He is a graduate of McGill University where he obtained degrees in Economics and Law. He began his career in Toronto where he built a successful commercial and M&A business law practice becoming a partner in a national law firm. On leaving the practice of law, he became a senior executive with various capital markets related responsibilities. He became the inaugural Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of a financial services group of companies and oversaw its growth from a start up to a major independent financial services company. In 2006, Mr. Charter left this position and focused his attention on his personal consulting and investment company and his numerous directorships. He has extensive corporate governance experience and has sat on and chaired several audit, compensation and governance committees as well several special, independent and strategic committees in various corporate situations. In addition to his public company directorships, he is the Chair of a privately held Toronto based merger arbitrage hedge fund group and sits on the World Gold Council board. Mr. Charter has completed the Institute of Corporate Directors, Directors Education Program.

Mr. Michael J. Cooper is the Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Dream Office REIT. He is also the President and Chief Responsible Officer of Dream and founder of DAM. He was previously the Chief Executive Officer of Dream Office REIT from June 2003 to May 2014. He has an extensive track record in the real estate industry dating back to 1986. He helped found DAM in 1996 and continues to lead the business as President and Chief Responsible Officer. Under his leadership, the business has grown to approximately $9 billion of commercial real estate, residential development and renewable energy infrastructure assets under management. Among his accomplishments, Mr. Cooper is responsible for the formation of three TSX-listed REITs: Dream Office REIT, Dream Global REIT, and Dream Industrial REIT. Mr. Cooper is also responsible for the formation of Dream Hard Asset Alternatives Trust, a TSX-listed trust providing an opportunity for unitholders to invest in diversified hard asset alternative investments. He earned a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Western Ontario and a Master of Business Administration from York University. Mr. Cooper currently sits on the board of directors of Dream, Dream Alternatives Master GP, Dream Office REIT, Dream Industrial REIT, and E-L Financial Corporation Limited.

Ms. P. Jane Gavan is the President, Asset Management of Dream and has more than 30 years of experience in the real estate industry. Ms. Gavan previously served as the Chief Executive Officer of Dream Global REIT and the Chief Executive Officer of Dream Office REIT. Since joining Dream in 1998, Ms. Gavan has played a key role in numerous transactions including the acquisition of Lehndorff Properties, the 2003 business restructuring that resulted in the creation of Dream Office REIT, Dream Office REIT’s $2.3 billion portfolio sale to GE Real Estate, and the initial public offering of Dream Global REIT. Prior to joining Dream, Ms. Gavan served as legal counsel for numerous companies including Oxford Properties Group, and Denison Mines Corp., and began her career in private law practice with Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP, specializing in real estate and corporate finance. She earned an Honours Bachelor of Commerce degree from Carleton University and a Bachelor of Laws degree from Osgoode Hall, York University. Ms. Gavan currently sits on the board of directors of Dream, and Dream Office REIT,  and is on the Patron’s Council for Community Living Toronto.

Mr. Robert Goodall is the President and founder of Canadian Mortgage Capital Corporation (“CMCC”), a major mortgage brokerage company with well-established lending and mortgage servicing operations.  CMCC’s head office is in downtown Toronto, and the company has branch offices in Calgary and Vancouver. Mr. Goodall is also CEO of Atrium Mortgage Investment Corporation, a major non-bank lender, which has assets of approximately $700 million and is publicly traded on the TSX under the symbol ‘AI’. For the fifteen year period from 1996 to 2011, CMCC arranged financing on over $6 billion of real estate in Ontario. From 1997-1999, CMCC also had the exclusive mandate to originate mortgages, and manage the existing mortgage portfolio of a Toronto based trust company. Prior to founding CMCC, Mr. Goodall spent seven years with Royal Trust, where the last three years were served as National Managing Director of the Real Estate Finance Group overseeing a portfolio of $1.4 billion in commercial and multi-residential real estate loans. The Real Estate Finance Group had offices in Toronto, Montreal and western Canada. Mr. Goodall is a trustee of Dream Office REIT, Atrium Mortgage Investment Corporation and director of a registered charity, Jump Math. Mr. Goodall has an HBA from the Ivey Business School, and an MBA from the Schulich School of Business.

The Hon. Dr. Kellie Leitch is currently the Member of Parliament for Simcoe-Grey and served as the Minister of Labour and Minister of Status of Women of the Government of Canada from 2013-2015, serving on several Cabinet committees. Dr. Leitch is a pediatric orthopaedic surgeon and was an associate professor of surgery in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto, Department of Surgery. She is the past Chair of the Ivey Centre for Health Innovation and Leadership. Dr. Leitch earned her Doctorate of Medicine from the University of Toronto in 1994, her MBA from Dalhousie University in 1998 and completed her Orthopaedic Surgery Residency at University of Toronto in 2001 and her Fellowship at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles/University of Southern California in 2002. Dr. Leitch has served on the National Research Council of Canada, Genome Canada, the YMCA (GTA), CANFAR and is the founder of The Sandbox Project, a national organization with a mandate to bring together leading researchers, governments, charities, and industry to improve child and youth health in Canada. Dr. Leitch was selected as one of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 for her work in both medicine and business in 2005 and in 2010, Dr. Leitch received the Order of Ontario for her work advocating for children.

Ms. Karine MacIndoe has over 20 years of professional experience, mostly in real estate and capital markets, and 5 years of public board experience.  She is currently also on the boards of Dream Alternatives and Killam Apartment REIT (“Killam”), and has recently joined the board of the Fred Victor charitable organization.  Her sub-committee responsibilities include chairing the Audit Committee at Dream Alternatives and Dream Office REIT, chairing the Compensation Committee at Killam, and being on the Audit Committee at Killam, and the Compensation Committee at Dream Office REIT.  Until 2013, Ms. MacIndoe was a Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at BMO Capital Markets covering Real Estate & REITs across all property types (retail, office, industrial, multi-residential, seniors housing and hotels).  During her over 10 year career at BMO she was consistently a top-ranked analyst in the Brendan Wood Canadian Equity Research Survey; both for the quality of her research and strength of client relationships.  Prior work experience also includes M&A Advisory at NM Rothschild & Sons, and management of sales planning at Canadian Airlines International.  Ms. MacIndoe has a MBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business (graduated an Ivey Scholar) and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Calgary (graduated Honor Society).

Read more about our Board of Trustees

Dream Office REIT’s Committees assist in the effective fun­c­tioning of the Board and help ensure that the views of Independent ­Trustees* are effectively represented.

Read more about our Committees

Dream Office REIT is committed to sound and effective corporate governance. Our goal is to not only meet the requirements established by securities laws and regulators but to also uphold the spirit of ‘good corporate governance’.

Read more about our Charters, Policies & Declaration of Trust