John Baczewski, CPA, is president of Real Estate Fiduciary Services, LLC (REFS), which provides independent fiduciary services and consulting to institutional and individual investors. Baczewski has more than 25 years of experience in institutional real estate investment, finance, management and monitoring, along with 10 years of Big Four public accounting experience.

Baczewski’s breadth and depth of institutional real estate experience includes investment strategy development, portfolio and asset management, due diligence and transaction management, operational reviews, accounting, performance measurement, client service and capital formation. At REFS, which he founded in 2005, his responsibilities include leading consulting assignments in the areas of investment, portfolio, asset and transaction management, including due diligence and Real Estate Information Standards (REIS) related policy development.

Baczewski has led clients through real estate strategy development, portfolio analysis and review, independent fiduciary assignments, transaction due diligence, manager and vehicle selection and performance measurement analysis. He has also performed operational audits of real estate investment and management organizations.

Baczewski Chairs the REIS Board, which promulgates information standards for the institutional real estate investment industry. Additionally, he formerly served on the REIS Council and served as technical project manager for the 2003 Real Estate Information Standards rewrite.

Since 1999, Baczewski has been an independent consultant serving the institutional real estate industry. Additional positions have included: chief financial officer of Pyramid Hotel Group; and managing director of business development for AMRESCO Advisors, where he was a member of the firm’s Management and Investment Committees. Baczewski also held a series of real estate consulting and portfolio management positions with PricewaterhouseCoopers, the Frank Russell Company, Russell Fiduciary Services Company and AEW Capital Management.

Baczewski is a fellow of the Homer Hoyt Institute, which comprises a group of industry leaders who lend their expertise to the Weimer School of Advanced Studies in Real Estate and Land Economics; an Editorial Board Member of The Institutional Real Estate Letter-North America and serves as a director of Benchmark Strategic Services, an independent research and strategic consulting firm serving the real estate industry.
Baczewski actively participates in several professional associations, including the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries (former board member), Pension Real Estate Association, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), CFA Institute, the Boston Security Analysts Society, and the Massachusetts Society of CPAs.

A graduate of Merrimack College, Baczewski received a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration and has published several articles and speaks frequently on pension real estate issues. He is a Certified Public Accountant, licensed in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.