The Californer - Former DoubleLine Co-Founder Philip Barach Takes on Active Role as CEO at Vista Investment Group

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SANTA MONICA, Calif. - Californer -- Philip Barach, former founding partner and President of DoubleLine Capital, who recently retired from the Los Angeles-based investment management firm this Spring, will take a more active role as CEO and co-managing partner with Vista Investment Group (Vista), a privately held real estate investment firm he co-founded with his son Jonathan in 2008.

Vista is engaged in the acquisition and active management of multifamily and commercial office properties located in urban infill markets in the Western U.S. Vista has approximately $1 billion in assets under management, with a portfolio that includes more than 2,000 multifamily units and nearly 2 million square feet of office product. With the assistance of the senior Barach, Vista plans to increase that number substantially over the next three years, raising equity capital with a particular focus on foreign and ultra high-net-worth sources.

"Jonathan and his team have built an impressive real estate portfolio, and a 12-year track record of generating attractive risk adjusted returns far superior than those in the equity and fixed-income markets," said Philip Barach, who has raised and managed tens of billions of dollars over the course of his 43-year career. "Our plan is to significantly grow our capital base and, combined with the financial strength of our existing balance sheet, pursue increasingly larger value-add and distressed opportunities of $100 million and above throughout the Western United States."

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Vista's president, Jonathan Barach, will continue to oversee all investment functions, including acquisition, due diligence, financing, asset management and disposition.

"We formed Vista in the middle of the last recession knowing there would be opportunities as the economy recovered," said Jonathan Barach. "We believe similar opportunities lie ahead and it's important that we prepare now before a market correction and not after."

Prior to DoubleLine, Philip Barach was co-founder and group managing director of the TCW Mortgage Group. Previously, he was Senior Vice President of Chief Investments for Sun Life Insurance Company, and Principal Fixed Income Officer for the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), the largest pension plan in the United States. At CalPERs Barach was involved in the creation of the collateralized mortgage obligation (CMO), and oversaw the issuance of one of the first private label CMOs using the retirement system's MBS portfolio. Barach holds a BA in International Relations and an MBA in Finance from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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About Vista Investment Group

Vista Investment Group, LLC (http://www.vistainvestmentgroup.com) is a privately held real estate investment firm, engaged in the acquisition and active management of commercial property located in urban infill markets in the Western United States. The Los Angeles-based company was founded in 2008 to focus on value-add and opportunistic strategies in the multifamily, mixed-use and office sectors.