Michael Schurer, the longtime chief financial officer of Thor Equities, has resigned from his position at the company, sources told The Real Deal.
Schurer, who was formerly the CFO of the Lightstone Group and Grand Heritage Hotel Group, held the spot at Thor for more than nine years, according to his LinkedIn page.
Schurer’s LinkedIn identifies him as self-employed in the real estate advisory services business.
But a spokesperson for Thor [TRDataCustom] said Schurer would continue his affiliation with the company as a chief adviser, working primarily on investments in Mexico under the umbrella of Thor Urbana Capital, an investment firm in Mexico City in which Thor owns a stake. He will not be moving to Mexico, however.
“He wanted to focus on his philanthropic endeavors,” the spokesperson said.
Schurer said he will be working with America Responds with Love, a nonprofit.
“This was me pursuing a dream,” Schurer said. “I wanted to be able to give back. Being at my desk all the time didn’t allow me to do that.”
No replacement has been named for the CFO role.
He was previously responsible for managing and reporting on the performance of the company’s investments, as well as overseeing the finance, accounting, risk management, asset management, legal, information systems and investor relations. In recent years, he helped the company establish a crowdfunding platform, dubbed “Invest Thor.” Thor has investments totaling $10 billion and more than 20 million square feet, including its development pipeline, according to its website.
His departure comes as Thor’s top two residential acquisition executives are leaving for Silverpeak Real Estate Partners. Alan Klein and Jonathan Fishman, who jointly ran the development firm’s residential arm, are expected to leave Thor sometime this month, TRD reported.
Schurer said the two events were unrelated.
“They had their own little world there, a business unto themselves,” he said. “My team supported them, but they largely operated independently.”