Savills, Caerus Debt Investments, Baupost Group, ICG, BNP Paribas Real Estate, Astarte Capital Partners, Brookfield Annuity, NatureVest, Legal & General, Morgan Sindall, Pi Labs, KKR, Logos, BentallGreenOak, Bridge Investment, Greystar Capital, North Sky Capital

Astarte Capital Partners – Paul Kerr has joined the real assets-focused investment firm’s North American operations team as managing director. Kerr joins from Brookfield Annuity, where he was CIO, a founding member of the management team and chair of the management investment committee. Based in Toronto, Kerr will lead Astarte’s North American operations, creating a local presence in this key region that that will further strengthen Astarte’s ability to capitalise on the significant number of opportunities in the market, as well as the growing demand from investors for differentiated, value-add investment opportunities within real assets. Prior to Brookfield, Kerr worked for ING Investment Management and ING Insurance, where he played a leading role building and managing the private equity, infrastructure and alternative investment strategies. Kerr was also a senior executive with Integrated Asset Management, now Fiera Capital.

Intermediate Capital Group –  Adam Golebiowski and Luca Lelli have been appointed managing director and Principal respectively. Both join from the Baupost in London where Golebiowski co-headed the European real estate business and Lelli was responsible for sourcing and transactions. Prior to Baupost, Golebiowski led the European real estate business for AIMCo where he played a key role in growing and diversifying the portfolio on a pan-European level. Prior to that, he held senior investment roles at the Lewis Trust Group and Citi Property Investors. He started his career in mergers and acquisitions at JP Morgan. Lelli’s previous experience prior to Baupost includes roles at Victory Advisors, a real estate private equity firm, and at JP Morgan, in mergers and acquisitions.

BNP Paribas Real Estate –  Han Khim Siew and Mathieu Brummer have been appointed as co-heads of BNP Paribas Real Estate Asia Pacific. Han is based in Singapore and will operationally report to the CEO of BNP Paribas’ Singapore Branch, Joris Dierckx, while Brummer is based in Hong Kong and will operationally report to Hugo Leung, the CEO of BNP Paribas Hong Kong branch. The two co-heads will both report hierarchically to Larry Young, as head of BNP Paribas Real Estate’s International Investment Group. Han was recently managing director in Singapore. He has an international background having worked in Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia and Brunei with a career spanning government, private equity real estate and real estate advisory in Asia Pacific and Europe, and served as a director of the Commonwealth Africa Investment Fund in Johannesburg. Prior to joining BNP Paribas Real Estate in 2013, he was head of investments at Jones Lang Lasalle Indonesia. Brummer spearheaded BNP Paribas Real Estate’s North Asian capital raising efforts since the inception of the Hong Kong platform in 2013, most recently as managing director and deputy head of BNP Paribas Real Estate North Asia. Prior to joining BNP Paribas Real Estate in 2011, he spent six years on the principle side with Morgan Stanley Real Estate in Frankfurt, Germany, working on acquisitions, debt procurement, and asset management. 

KKR – Tom Lee has been appointed managing director and head of Australia and New Zealand Real Estate, effective 3 May. Lee will play a critical leadership role in expanding KKR’s real estate strategies across the Asia region. He will also join the KKR Asia Real Estate investment committee. Lee was most recently CEO of Logos. Prior to that, he held senior roles at BlackRock, MGPA and Lendlease in Asia, Europe, US and Australia.

Bridge Investment Group – The real estate investment management firm has appointed Claudius Weissbarth managing director of its EMEA client solutions business. Weissbarth will be responsible for developing and managing Bridge’s European and Middle Eastern client relationships. Prior to joining Bridge, Weissbarth was managing director and head of EMEA business development and capital raising at Greystar Capital, where he was responsible for European and Middle Eastern business development and institutional investor relationships across the company’s global real estate activities.

Manulife Investment Management – Eric Cooperström has joined Manulife’s subsidiary Hancock Natural Resource Group as managing director, impact investing and natural climate solutions. In this newly created role, Cooperström will be responsible for enhancing the sustainability and responsible investing capabilities for Manulife’s timberland and agriculture teams and will also work closely with them to develop and support an investment thesis and value proposition for clients interested in impact-first investments. Prior to joining Manulife, Cooperström was a senior director at NatureVest, the impact investment arm of The Nature Conservancy. Previously, he was program-related investment lead at the Skoll Foundation. He also worked at Volta Capital and Capital Dynamics in London as an investment associate and was an analyst at investment bank Houlihan Lokey. 

BentallGreenOak – Christina Iacoucci has been appointed CIO in Canada. In this role, Iacoucci will be responsible for leading the firm’s real estate investment strategies for its Canadian funds and Separate Account mandates. She has spent 23 years with BentallGreenOak’s parent company Sun Life Financial, where she has held several senior positions within its real estate group. In her most recent role as a managing partner and portfolio manager for the Sun Life Canadian Real Estate Equity Portfolio, Iacoucci provided leadership and strategy across all aspects of the portfolio. Additionally, Iacoucci has been a leading force behind BentallGreenOak’s sustainable real estate investing and innovation initiatives. She is on the board of directors of both NAIOP—the Commercial Real Estate Development Association—and the Commercial Real Estate Equity & Diversity Council. She is a longstanding member of the International Council of Shopping Centers and the Commercial Real Estate Women’s Network.

Legal & General – Wes Erlam has joined Legal & General Capital as its new director of urban regeneration. Erlam brings with him over 20 years of experience in land, development, investment and mixed-use regeneration.  More than 12 of those years were spent working for Morgan Sindall, most recently leading the company’s investment division. He was previously a development director at Morgan Sindall’s sister company, Muse Developments. In this new role, Erlam will oversee all direct investments in urban regeneration as the company continues to expand, evolve and mature, and will help further bolster its capabilities in creating like-minded joint ventures and public/private partnerships.

Pi Labs – The proptech VC has appointed Ivan Ramirez as venture partner, as it expands its ecosystem internationally. Ramirez will be Pi Labs’ first US venture partner, strengthening Pi Labs as a gateway between global real estate firms and the rapidly evolving proptech universe. Ramirez was the founder and CEO at CommerceInterface which he sold to Groupon in 2012. He has also held positions as VP of business development and wholesale at Overstock, and was co-founder, chief product officer and CTO at EMOOV. More recently, he held the position of chief product officer at EMAAR, the multinational real estate development company based in the United Arab Emirates.

Savills – Henry Ryde has joined the real estate services firm’s heritage and townscape planning team as a director. Ryde joins with over a decade of experience advising clients on the adaptation and redevelopment of the historic built environment in both Central London and England. Ryde brings with him a wealth of expertise, having successfully acted as an expert heritage witness at appeal in more recent years, he has also retained a market leading presence advising private clients, investors and solicitors as part of property disposal and acquisition.

Caerus Debt Investments – The real estate debt investment consultancy firm has appointed Bernhard Berg as a new member of its management board. In the newly-created position of COO, his primary areas of responsibility will be in client relationship and product structuring. As a member of the investment committee, with his investment expertise, he will also support the company in granting loans and making investment decisions. Berg has almost 40 years of experience in the fields of investment, development and fund management, together with strategy and product development in the finance and real estate industry. He has held leading positions in numerous companies in the sector. During his role as head of the real estate division of Provinzial Rheinland, R+V Versicherungsgruppe and Generali Deutschland, he was responsible for capital investments of the asset class. As the spokesman for the management of IVG Institutional Funds and as CEO of Corpus Sireo Holding, he implemented the launch of national and international funds. Prior to joining Caerus, Berg was a member of the board of aamundo Holding  and a director of aamundo Fund Management. He was also a founder and board member of INREV and a member of the board of trustees of the chair in real estate economy at the European Business School.

North Sky Capital – Dale Freudenberger has joined the firm as an operating partner. Freudenberger was CEO of one FLS Energy, a company he co-founded in 2006. 

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