A very different merchant bank.
Known by those who need to know.
Character is selected through reputation. Our engagements frequently begin through trusted introductions from sophisticated landowners, family offices, developers, institutions, governments and industry leaders.
Character undertakes a limited number of mandates so that every opportunity receives direct senior involvement and a purpose-built team.
Commonality of Interest
Every mandate begins with a reasonable retainer demonstrating mutual commitment. A meaningful part of Character's compensation is linked to the value created.
Outcome, Not Activity
Our clients engage Character to achieve outcomes, not to complete isolated assignments.
Enduring Mandates
Character has never had a mandate terminated by a client. Engagements conclude when the owner-defined outcome has been achieved.
Specialist expertise for sophisticated owners.
Character is often engaged by owners and investment teams that are already highly accomplished in institutional real estate and private capital, but require specialist resort and resort real estate merchant banking expertise.
At Nevele Resort & Spa in New York, Character was brought in by an exceptional team whose experience included senior leadership positions with Lehman Brothers, CBRE, Nomura International, Fremont Realty Capital, Oaktree Capital Management and Colony Capital. Character focused on resort development strategy, resort real estate, capital structuring, financing, and integrating the hospitality and residential components into a financeable institutional investment platform.
Leadership
For more than 35 years, Graham Kwan has advised landowners, governments, family offices, institutional investors and private developers on the creation, repositioning, financing and realization of landmark residential, resort and hospitality real estate across more than 30 countries.
His career has been defined by an ability to identify latent asset value and integrate the disciplines required to unlock it. Drawing on experience spanning strategic planning, master planning, hospitality, operations, financial engineering, development, investment banking and capital formation, Graham developed Character's proprietary Integrated Value Creation methodology.
Originally from Australia, Graham began his career in Canada with resort developments in Muskoka, including Deerhurst, Grandview and Bigwin Island, together with Lighthouse Point in Collingwood. He subsequently established a specialty development and resort attractions strategy practice at Belt Collins International, advising leading municipalities including Queenstown and Gold Coast City, together with clients such as Kerry Properties (Shangri-La), CDL, Civil & Civic, Sega and other premier developers throughout the Asia-Pacific region.
He later joined Intrawest Corporation, where he worked across the company's corporate, real estate and operations groups on destinations including Whistler, Tremblant, Blue Mountain and Sandestin, and participated in the acquisition of Abercrombie & Kent. As Chief Executive Officer of Melco's resort development company in China, he established one of the country's largest integrated mountain resort platforms and was instrumental in bringing Club Med's first two resorts to China.
His subsequent international assignments have included luxury hospitality developments with Banyan Tree in Brazil, the optimization of what is today the Mandarin Oriental Muscat, strategic resort developments in the Caribbean, national tourism initiatives for the Republic of Georgia, and appointments as Senior Advisor, Real Estate with Cascadia Capital and Development Principal to a Luxembourg domiciled real estate private equity fund.
Recognized for his strategic thinking, commercial insight and ability to align world-class specialists around a common vision, Graham has led assignments ranging from luxury private residences to internationally recognized destination resorts and mixed-use developments representing many billions of dollars in real estate and hospitality development.
Today, Graham leads Character's merchant banking and development advisory activities as our Executive Chairman, helping owners, boards of directors, family offices and investors identify opportunity, integrate specialist expertise and optimize value creation.
Experience with breadth.
A career spanning strategic planning, development, hospitality, operations, investment banking and capital formation.
Relationships built over decades.
For more than three decades, Character has worked alongside many of the hospitality industry's most respected owners, operators, architects and advisors, helping shape exceptional destinations and create enduring value.
Pictured on site in The Bahamas with Wolf Hengst, former Chairman of Six Senses, reviewing The Stocking Island Club.
Extraordinary opportunities rarely begin with a formal process.
Whether you are evaluating a significant landholding, repositioning an existing asset, considering an acquisition or seeking to unlock latent value, we welcome a confidential discussion.
Character undertakes a limited number of mandates each year, allowing every engagement to receive direct senior involvement and a purpose-built team.