GLOBAL - The European Association for Investors in Non-listed Real Estate Vehicles (INREV) has sent its former acting chief executive Andrea Carpenter to work with its counterpart in the Asia Pacific region, ANREV, on a temporary basis.

The three-month secondment for Carpenter, who is director of professional standards and communications at INREV, is intended to aid alignment between the two bodies that represent the non-listed property fund industries in their respective regions.

Carpenter will move to Hong Kong from October 2010 and work alongside ANREV's senior management team to help implement the co-operation agreement between the two organisations, announced last December.

Under agreement, ANREV is endorsing the INREV guidelines in Asia and replicating INREV initiatives such as the vehicles database and programme of research projects.

Matthias Thomas, chief executive at INREV, said: "Our members want information and standards in Asia that are in line with what we have developed in Europe, and Andrea will help us work toward this goal."

Carpenter will use her experience from her three years with INREV to help put in place an online vehicles database for the region and support initiatives to improve understanding and adoption of the INREV guidelines such as workshops and training courses.

Nick Loup, chairman of ANREV and chief executive of Grosvenor Asia Pacific, said:

"Andrea is arriving at the end of a big year for ANREV when membership has been growing steadily and significant progress has been made with the rollout of the INREV guidelines, the funds database and fund managers survey - all of which are important steps toward our goals of improving transparency and best practice standards in Asia.

Jeremy Stewardson, executive director at ANREV, added: "Our membership now stands at 81 members, which has enabled us to bring forward more initiatives for the industry.

"Our primary aim is to serve the Asian market, and with Andrea's support and the co-operation with INREV, we can ensure our work is aligned with INREV's to ensure consistency and allow members to benefit from comparisons on a regional basis."