WASHINGTON, DC-Joseph E. Robert, Jr., the founder and executive chairman of JER Partners passed away Wednesday, reportedly from brain cancer. He was 59 years old. Spokespeople for the firm could not be reached for comment.

Robert’s career was one of milestones. In 1989, he formed the Real Estate Capital Recovery Association, an industry trade group that secured a place for the private sector in the dispositions being handled by the newly created Resolution Trust Corp. “Joe Robert has to get an ‘A’ for vision,” Christopher Kallivokas, president of Real Estate Recovery Inc., told the New York Times amid the S&L crisis of the early 1990s. “He saw the opportunity before most that the government would be a significant player in distressed real estate.”

In 1991, Robert’s firm reportedly was the first to securitize a portfolio of non-performing mortgages. That same year, J.E. Robert began investing its own capital alongside institutional investors to acquire loan and real estate portfolios, and six years later launched a private equity real estate fund business. Now known as JER Partners, the firm has successfully purchased and managed approximately 15,000 assets totaling $28 billion across 17 countries. It has also been among the most active special servicers of performing and non-performing CMBS for the past 20 years, a track record that undoubtedly led C-III Capital Partners to acquire JER’s special servicing business.