Childers joins from AllianceBernstein, where he co-managed $2.3 billion in real assets investment strategies, including the AllianceBernstein Real Asset Strategy Fund.

In his newly-created role, Childers will lead the research and investment team responsible for the firm’s real assets strategy, which allocates among commodities, natural resource equities, infrastructure and global real estate investments. He will also serve as a portfolio manager for the Cohen & Steers Real Assets Fund.

Founded in 1986, Cohen & Steers is a global investment manager with additional offices in Seattle, London, Hong Kong and Tokyo.