Alan Forman

Founder, Blue Orchard Capital · 1 appearance on the record.

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Alan Forman spent over 31 years at the Yale University Investments Office, serving as Director of Real Estate alongside David Swensen. After leaving Yale, he founded Blue Orchard Capital to advise real estate investment managers on governance and operations.

30statements → 8claims → 3claims resolved → 100%fully supported → 3.8/5average certainty → 1.57/5average debate potential → ≈4.5/5argument clarity, estimated →

3 supported 0 partly supported 0 contradicted 1 not yet assessed 4 not checkable as stated how the 8 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

8 assertions · 9 insights · 12 disclosures · 1 what if · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 8 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 3 are resolved, 1 is not yet assessed, and 4 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Alan argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported

David Swensen modeled Yale's real estate strategy on private equity and VC

“David Swenson was a first principles investor, and he looked at the real estate business in the eighties and said, this doesn't make any sense. And he thought that the fee-based nature of the business, there was no alignment of interest. There was lots of sepa…”

Alan Forman Sep 25, 2023 ▶ 28:27 Alan Forman – Yale Endowment Real Estate (EP.340)

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1

none yet certainty 2

100% certainty 3

100% certainty 4

none yet certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

How they sound: not measured why? →

We measure speaking style by listening to the audio itself, and a fair number needs at least 2,000 words from one person on tape we have measured. There is too little of Alan Forman on measured tape to publish a rate. This says nothing about how they speak.

What they said30 Episodes1

Everything Alan Forman said on Capital Allocators that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Forman: Yale probably made $100 million redeveloping 717 Fifth Avenue

“We ripped off the front of the building and expanded it, and Yale probably made a hundred million dollars on the redevelopment.”

Alan Forman Sep 25, 2023 ▶ 26:43 Alan Forman – Yale Endowment Real Estate (EP.340)

Disclosure

Forman: Yale was slow to enter student housing and self-storage

“I'd say we were a little slow on some of these nichier sectors where these non-traditional real estate sectors like student housing and self-storage Part of that was the people in the business by definition almost didn't have a lot of experience, and there was…”

Alan Forman Sep 25, 2023 ▶ 42:13 Alan Forman – Yale Endowment Real Estate (EP.340)

Insight

Forman: Multi-strategy real estate managers educate allocators on niche sectors

“And that's where I think having these relative multi-strategy shops is very helpful because they actually help educate us to understand, oh, there's these other sectors over here. They think it's relatively attractive. Maybe we can do that in a bigger way some…”

Alan Forman Sep 25, 2023 ▶ 42:54 Alan Forman – Yale Endowment Real Estate (EP.340)

Disclosure

Yale underwrote zero terminal value on distressed 1990s California real estate deals

“Things were so bad in California back then that we underwrote no residual To the assets in at least one deal. It was not even a land residual. We assume that these assets just went away at the end of the lease term because things were so bad.”

Alan Forman Sep 25, 2023 ▶ 47:09 Alan Forman – Yale Endowment Real Estate (EP.340)

Assertion Supported

Forman: Yale directly owned real estate assets before pioneering private equity model

“Back in the day, Yale was a direct real estate owner of assets. When I joined, I was put in charge of managing all those assets, and David and Ellen and Donna were pursuing this New model called private equity real estate”

Alan Forman Sep 25, 2023 ▶ 7:50 Alan Forman – Yale Endowment Real Estate (EP.340)

Assertion Not checkable as stated

Yale Investments Office included junior staff in all high-level meetings

“Some of the dynamics in the office, young people were included in everything, and there was no segregation of, oh, this is a high-level meeting. So everyone got to see everything”

Alan Forman Sep 25, 2023 ▶ 8:55 Alan Forman – Yale Endowment Real Estate (EP.340)

Appearances (1)