REAL ESTATE – Former Lehman Brothers Real Estate Partners vice president Leopoldo Andreis de Gregorio has joined private equity real estate firm Benson Elliot Capital Management as partner.

He’ll head Benson Elliot’s Italian operations.

Marc Mogull, the former Doughty Hanson Real Estate head who launched Benson Elliot in 2005, said: “From the outset I said I wanted to assemble at Benson Elliot the pre-eminent private equity real estate team. Leopoldo is one of the most talented real estate professionals in Italy.”

Over the last six years Andreis de Gregorio led LBREP’s investment, development, portfolio and joint venture transactions in Italy with a total end value in excess of €1.5bn.

Prior to joining Lehman Brothers he worked as a real estate advisers for Healey & Baker (now Cushman & Wakefield) for customers including Deutsche Bank, Schroders and Morgan Stanley.

Mogull’s recruits for Benson Elliot include Trish Geery, former managing director and head of global real estate for the Dubai Investment Group, and Philip Irons, former head of transactions at Schroders plc.