The University of Georgia Terry College of Business will launch a new student-managed real estate investment fund in fall 2026, offering undergraduate students in the nation’s No. 2 publicly ranked Real Estate Program an opportunity to gain hands-on experience managing real capital.

Made possible by a transformative $2 million gift from Terry alumnus and real estate leader Wes Rogers (BBA ’99, MBA ’04), the Rogers Real Estate Investment Fund is designed to immerse students in the full life cycle of real estate investing, including deal sourcing, underwriting, portfolio management and performance evaluation.

As chairman and CEO of Landmark Properties, Rogers has led nearly $17 billion in investments, overseeing the development, acquisition and management of student and multifamily housing across the U.S. and UK. Under his direction, Landmark manages over $15 billion in assets spanning 115 communities and 72,000 beds. Landmark has been recognized as the nation’s top student housing developer for seven of the last eight years and is well known for its exceptional returns. The company also maintains the sector’s most robust development pipeline — over 50 student and multifamily projects valued at more than $10 billion — and thanks to its integrated platform, is also the nation’s largest student housing contractor. 

“I enjoyed a transformative experience at the University of Georgia thanks to teachers like Henry Munneke and Jere Morehead and have thought deeply about how our success at Landmark might benefit today’s students,” said Rogers, who established Landmark based on a detailed business plan he wrote while earning his MBA. “UGA has exceptional classroom offerings, and I’m thrilled to be able to support an opportunity to accelerate student learning with a hands-on experience that will be unmatched in undergraduate real estate education.”

Rogers added that UGA provost and former Terry College dean Ben Ayers was instrumental in planning the new program.

The Rogers Real Estate Investment Fund — which may be supplemented with additional contributions from other donors over time — will serve as a real-world investment vehicle, enabling students to research, analyze and manage a diversified portfolio of commercial real estate assets. The fund will invest across public real estate securities, including equities, Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), private real estate investments and select development projects.

Central to the fund’s mission is a credit-bearing course developed to support the Rogers Real Estate Investment Fund. The course will anchor the academic experience, blending rigorous financial analysis with applied learning and strong oversight from faculty and industry advisors.

“The Rogers Real Estate Investment Fund provides a level of technical rigor and responsibility that will make our graduates some of the most competitive and well-prepared professionals in the industry,” said Henry Munneke, the Terry College associate dean for undergraduate programs and the Roy Adams Dorsey Distinguished Chair in Real Estate. “By managing real capital, our students move beyond the theoretical and step into the roles of professional analysts and portfolio managers.”

Students will assume roles such as analysts and portfolio managers to mirror the responsibilities they will encounter in professional real estate careers. Through this experiential model, students will build advanced skills in financial modeling, valuation, due diligence and investment presentation, while also learning the fiduciary responsibilities that come with managing capital.

Rogers’ gift represents a lasting investment in the future of real estate education at UGA. By bridging the gap between theory and practice, the Rogers Real Estate Investment Fund will strengthen career preparation, deepen alumni engagement and reinforce Terry’s position as a national leader in experiential real estate education. An Athens native, Rogers was named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for the Southeast in 2017 and is widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading experts on student housing development, management, construction and finance. He resides in Atlanta with his family.