IPA honors founder of W.P. Carey

The Investment Program Association, a trade association for nonlisted direct investment vehicles, has honored the late William Polk Carey, founder of W. P. Carey Inc., with the IPA’s first Lifetime Achievement Award for his accomplishments spanning six decades.
Mr. Carey, who died last year, was a pioneer in the development of sale-leaseback financing and a generous businessman who greatly contributed to his native city of Baltimore and a host of other causes. Among his gifts was a $50 million bequest to found the Johns Hopkins University’s Carey School of Business.
Mr. Carey guided the development of his firm from its founding in 1973 to a position of market leadership. In 1998, it listed on the New York Stock Exchange (WPC) and today has a global investment portfolio of approximately $15.2 billion.
Under his leadership, Mr. Carey focused the business on providing companies with capital to run their businesses and providing investors with high-quality income-oriented products that have the potential to appreciate over the long run and through the gamut of economic conditions.
In 1979, he created the firm’s first investment program, called Corporate Property Associates, which raised $20 million from individual investors. He went on to govern the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts, served as an executive in residence at the Harvard Business School, and was a trustee of Johns Hopkins and The Rensselaerville Institute.