Since assuming his role at Amherst more than 20 years ago, Sean Dobson has grown the company into one of the most innovative and fastest-growing privately held real estate investment firms. 

Also serving as chief investment officer, Dobson guides more than $7 billion of assets under management for Amherst and its consumer brands. 

Under his strategic guidance, Amherst reorganized its acquisitions team into groups focused on investment strategy, sourcing, underwriting and transaction management, and streamlined property management and construction operations at Main Street Renewal, its single-family rental platform, to complete more than 3,500 home renovations by the end of last year. 

Dobson has led Amherst’s CRE lending team to reach new milestones, executing its first collateralized loan obligation on a $400 million portfolio of commercial mortgage assets and growing its loan commitments to more than $1 billion across 40 CRE loans since inception. 

Dobson’s vision and leadership played a critical role in overseeing the team’s execution and milestone achievement, and he continues to lead Amherst’s efforts to unlock future growth opportunities. Dobson also developed and led Amherst’s ongoing internal and external COVID-19 response effort, quickly mobilizing his teams to develop and implement plans to protect the health and safety of Amherst’s employees and the broader communities in which the company operates. 

He guided Amherst’s nearly 1,000 employees as they transitioned to remote work virtually overnight, and continues to drive employee engagement through regular business updates, town halls and fireside chats.

What has been your secret to success?
Being mission-driven is core to everything we do – Amherst is committed to giving back to the communities we build in to make them stronger, it’s what drives me to keep innovating to push the future of housing forward every day.