Onay Payne (she/her) is a Senior Managing Director and Portfolio Manager at Manulife Investment Management (“Manulife IM”). Ms. Payne is responsible for driving the strategy and development of ESG/Impact investment capabilities across the Manulife IM platform. Ms. Payne partners with Manulife IM’s investment, asset management and investor relations teams in screening investments; identifying risks and opportunities with respect to ESG/Impact; optimizing portfolio construction; enhancing asset performance; maximizing returns; and establishing performance benchmarking for ESG/Impact. Ms. Payne serves on Manulife IM’s Global Real Estate Leadership Team.

Prior to joining MIM, Ms. Payne was the Managing Director of Real Estate at Lafayette Square, a national investment platform focused on achieving risk-adjusted returns for investors while positively supporting people and communities in overlooked places and underserved markets.

Prior to joining Lafayette, Ms. Payne was an equity owner and Managing Director of Clarion Partners. As a Portfolio Manager, she was responsible for close to ten billion dollars in assets under management over the course of her 19-year tenure, having overseen several separate account and co-mingled investment mandates covering all major property types and markets throughout the United States. She also oversaw Clarion’s Mexico platform and served on the firm’s Investment and Career Management Committees. Ms. Payne began working in the real estate and finance industries in 1997.

Ms. Payne is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, from which she received an A.B. in 1997. She received an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School in 2003, where she was a Robert Toigo Foundation (“Toigo”) Fellow. Ms. Payne is fluent in Spanish.

Ms. Payne currently serves as Chair of the Toigo Alumni Endowment Board and Chair of the Audit, Finance & Investment Committee of the Mark Morris Dance Group board of directors. She is also a member of the Urban Land Institute (“ULI”), where she serves as a Global Governing Trustee, a Vice Chair of the national Technology and Real Estate Council, and a ULI NY Advisory Board Member; the Real Estate Executive Council (“REEC”); the Harvard Alumni Real Estate Board; WX New York Women Executives in Real Estate; and the Advisory Board of Building Cyber Security.

In 2023, Ms. Payne has been recognized on the Commercial Observer’s 2023 Power 100 list, featured in Bloomberg Markets Magazine and in Commercial Property Executive’s Female Leaders in CRE. Previously, she was a featured contributor to Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2023, selected as a member of the Commercial Observer’s 2021 Power Finance 50 list, featured in the Pace Common Ground Campaign for Gender Equality in 2017, inducted into the Toigo Foundation’s inaugural “40 Under 40” in 2013, and featured in Real Estate Forum Magazine’s “Women of Influence 2010.”