James Koster II

President, Investor Services

Jay leads more than 4,600 professionals across the United States, Canada and Latin America. He also shares responsibility for the strategic direction, growth and client activities of JLL's global capital markets business as a member of the firm's global capital markets board, and the Americas capital markets business as a member of the Executive Committee.    

Before assuming his current role in January 2014, Jay led JLL's Americas Capital Markets business, starting in 2008, when he joined as part of the Staubach acquisition. He guided the business through a substantive restructure during the market downturn and drove revenue growth exceeding 600 percent from 2010 to 2013. Under Jay’s leadership, the Americas business has grown from 150 people in 2009 to a 2,000-person regional business spread across 47 offices.

Jay has directed the expansion of the firm's Capital Markets service offering, adding new capabilities in loan servicing, loan sales, GSE lending, equity fund raising and credit tenant lease financing. He broadly expanded the firm's product coverage in the Americas to include multifamily, industrial, office and retail brokerage and financing. This included spearheading the acquisition of Oak Grove Capital in late 2015, three strategic acquisitions that broadened JLL's global valuation advisory capabilities, and the 2019 acquisition of HFF, which more than doubled JLL’s capital markets coverage in the U.S. and quickly scaled the firm’s debt advisory business in Europe and Asia Pacific.

Jay started his nearly three-decade career in real estate after earning a business management degree from the University of Texas at Austin. He joined Prudential's general account real estate investment group, where he held various roles in investment management, lending and development and was a founding member of its property management and agency leasing subsidiary, Premisys Real Estate Services.

He is an active member of the Executive Council of the University of Texas Real Estate Finance and Investment Council and the Urban Land Institute (ULI), in addition to International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC), Pension Real Estate Association (PREA) and Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA).

In his spare time, Jay enjoys spending time with his family, traveling and skiing. As an advocate in the fight against hunger, Jay has directed the firm’s partnership with Feeding America and CaterCares.