Mr. Merrill is the Co-Founder, President and CEO of Harrison Street Real Estate Capital, LLC a real estate private equity firm founded in 2005 that manages private equity funds and public securities products. Mr. Merrill is also a Member of the Board of Directors and Chairman of the Investment & Management Committees of the Company. The firm has a series of real estate funds: Harrison Street Real Estate Partners I, LP a $210M fund with buying power of over $800M; Harrison Street Real Estate Partners II, LP, a $431M fund with buying power of over $1.5B; Harrison Street Real Estate Partners III, LP, a $595.5M fund with buying power of over $2.0B; and Harrison Street Core Property Fund, an open-end real estate fund that currently has over $200 million in commitments. Investors in these funds include some of the largest US and European Pension Funds, Corporate Plans, Insurance Companies and family offices. As of March 2012 the firm has acquired or has under development 200+ properties worth approximately $3.2B throughout 38 states in US.  Harrison Street Securities LLC, a firm Mr. Merrill and his partners acquired in 2011, currently manages over $450M in REIT securities through three, distinct long only product offerings.

Prior to co-founding Harrison Street Real Estate Capital, LLC, Mr. Merrill was a partner, owner and Managing Director of a large US Pension Fund Advisory firm where he developed the firm's presence in Europe, creating the first ever real estate funds exclusively targeting the markets of Central Europe.

Over his career Mr. Merrill has worked to create differentiated real estate products which have acquired and/or developed over $8 billion of real estate in both the U.S. and Europe. Since 2000, Mr. Merrill has led the launch and oversight of over eight (8) distinct real estate funds throughout the US and Europe which have raised over $2.5 billion in combined equity. Mr. Merrill has been active in all segments of the property markets, and has established and implemented over 50 joint-ventures with real estate operating partners across the U.S. and Europe.

Mr. Merrill has appeared in numerous real estate journals and on panels regarding investing in the U.S. and Europe. In 2011, National Real Estate Investor Magazine named Mr. Merrill as one of the "10 To Watch" leaders in the real estate industry. Mr. Merrill is a member of the Urban Land Institute, PREA, The Economic Club of Chicago and the Chicago Commonwealth Club. In addition, the firm is a member of the Self Storage Association (SSA), National Multi-Housing Association, International Marina Association, and Building Office & Managers Association (BOMA). Mr. Merrill earned his MBA in the evening from the CASS school of business in London, England and he has a BA in Economics from Roanoke College.