GLOBAL - Investment Property Databank (IPD) has hired RREEF's Peter Hobbs to form one half of a new strategic partnership to succeed founders Rupert Nabarro and Ian Cullen.
Hobbs, who is head of global research at Deutsche Asset Management's real estate investment management arm, will join as number two to IPD's managing director Laurent Ternisien.
Both Ternisien and Hobbs will seek to drive the organisation forward commercially, while allowing executive chairman Nabarro and director Cullen, who founded IPD 25 years ago, to take a step back in the overall running of the company.
Hobbs will take up his new role of senior director and head of business development from the beginning of September and assist Ternisien with commercial strategy.
He will be responsible for building on IPD's product development, marketing and overall research and will continue to work with RREEF and other global IPD clients on specific research projects and issues of significance for the industry.
Over the coming weeks in July, Ternisien and Nabarro will be meeting with IPD's institutional client base to outline the organisation's five-year plan.
An IPD spokesman said the real estate industry had been asking about succession for Nabarro and Cullen for a long time.
"Today, we have effectively announced the two who will take over long term," he said.
Ternisien said Hobbs would bring a deep understanding of the real estate investment process, having worked with some of the world's largest and most innovative investors.
"The experience and skills he is bringing to IPD really will help to continue to reinforce our offer to clients across a variety of different markets, ensuring our products remains relevant and that we support the property industry in converting information into knowledge," he said.
Hobbs said he was "delighted and honoured" to be joining a company that has played such a "critical role in helping the real estate asset class mature over the past 25 years".
He added: "One of the most profound lessons of the most recent downturn across global markets has been the need for greater transparency and improved understanding between investors and managers.
"Markets might be coming out of this downturn, but there remains much to do before real estate becomes truly accepted as a mainstream asset class."
