Bruce Flatt, the Accountant on a Spending Spree

For the past two decades, Flatt, a mild-mannered accountant from Winnipeg, Manitoba, has bought up real estate, roads, bridges, and other critical infrastructure from India to Brazil. Brookfield’s properties now include some of the most recognizable real estate in the world, such as the Manhattan West development in New York’s Hudson Yards and Canary Wharf in London. The company hasn’t enjoyed the same name recognition as its peers like Blackstone Group, Carlyle Group, and KKR, but that changed with the 61% purchase for $4.7 billion of Oaktree, which put Brookfield’s portfolio behind only Blackstone’s. In the past year alone, Brookfield has spent about $33 billion, including $6.3 billion to acquire U.S. regional railway Genessee & Wyoming Inc. in July and, that same month, about $3.7 billion for a mobile-phone tower business in India.