Valad Europe, CBRE Global Investors, Timbercreek Asset Management, Cording Real Estate Group, CBRE, Paul Hastings

Valad Europe – The pan-European real estate manager, recently acquired by Australia’s Cromwell Property Group, has expanded its management team ahead of plans to launch a core European real estate fund.

Audrey Klein, formerly senior managing director at Aerium and founder of the European business of Park Hill Real Estate, has been appointed head of equity, looking after discretionary capital raising. Tomas Beck, who was responsible for building up the direct and indirect real estate portfolio of Swedish state pension fund AP1, has joined as head of Nordics. Dennis Börgel, who previously worked in JLL’s portfolio investment team, has been appointed head of business development in Germany.

The company has made several internal appointments: Christian Bearman is now head of business development and private equity; Rob Cotterell has been promoted to head of transactions; James Sullivan is taking on the role of European head of operations. In addition to his role as head of UK real estate, Simon Marriott is also now a pan-European role as head of investments. Thomas Gurski has been appointed head of asset management in Germany.

David Kirkby, CEO of Valad Europe, said the appointments “clearly signal our intention, as part of Cromwell Property Group’s global real estate investment strategy, to continue growing and expanding our European platform, both in terms of capital raising ability and our reach into new geographic regions”.

CBRE Global InvestorsRobert Perry has joined as an executive managing director in the Strategic Partners team, which manages value-add and opportunistic strategies in the US. Perry will focus on transaction origination, capital raising and programme development. He was previously senior managing director and leader of the North American real estate business of CarVal Investors.

Timbercreek Asset Management – Gigi Wong, formerly director of capital markets operations at the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, has joined Timbercreek as chief financial officer. She will be responsible for overseeing financial and taxation reporting, treasury and corporate financings, as well as the company’s financial reporting and risk analytics platform.

Cording Real Estate Group – The company has strengthened its UK asset management team with the appointment of Adam Crickmore. He will work on Cording’s growing UK industrial and office portfolios, and was previously an asset manager at Square Metre Properties.

CBRE – Alexandre Astier has been hired as managing director of the capital markets business in Italy. He takes over from Paolo Bellacosa who has stepped down after 12 years at the company. Astier joined CBRE in 2014 to head up its Capital Advisors business in Italy.

Paul Hastings – James Taylor has been hired by the real estate law firm as partner. He joins the London office from Allen & Overy.