JP Morgan Asset Management (JPMAM) has appointed Tom Klugherz and James Santi as executive directors to join its real estate business in the Americas and Asia-Pacific, respectively.

Klugherz will join JP Morgan Global Alternative’s $67bn (€56.8bn) Real Estate Americas platform and will be responsible for advising clients in the Western US on global real estate investment opportunities and building client partnerships. Klugherz will be based in San Francisco.

He joins from UBS Realty Investors, where he was executive director for portfolio and client services, and responsible for capital raising and client relationships.

JPMAM said Santi, who will be based in Sydney, has been appointed to the newly created role of acquisitions officer for Australia and New Zealand.

He will be responsible for and leads the origination, underwriting, due diligence and transaction execution of real estate acquisitions in Australia and New Zealand.

David Chen, the head of real estate Asia Pacific at JPMAM, said: “Given their favourable economic and real estate market fundamentals, Australia/New Zealand offer our clients the prospect of enhanced risk-adjusted returns over the long term with low correlation to the US and European market cycles.

“As clients increase their allocations to core Asia Pacific real estate, we are adding resources like James with deep local and regional experience and a proven acquisition track record.”

Prior to joining JPMAM, Santi was a senior director of capital markets at CBRE where he led the firm’s industrial and logistics investment sales platform for New South Wales.