Digital Colony, St Modwen Properties, KGAL, Pantheon, GIC, Montano Asset Management, DWS, Southern Grove, Atrato Group, PIMCO, M&G Real Estate, Patrizia, PGGM, Aviva Investors, River & Mercantile, Investec, BNP Paribas, Hodes Weill & Associates, Lazard
Pantheon – Paul Barr has joined the investment manager’s global infrastructure and real assets team as partner. Richard Sem, who joined Pantheon as partner in London in 2017 has been named head of Europe in the Infrastructure team. Barr, who joined from GIC, will initially be based in London, with a view to assuming a senior leadership position within Pantheon’s San Francisco Infrastructure team either later in 2021 or early 2022. Barr brings 15 years of experience across infrastructure primary, secondary and co-investment opportunities, with additional involvement in infrastructure direct investing and infrastructure debt transactions. He joined GIC in 2012, working in both London and more recently Singapore. Prior to GIC, Barr worked at Challenger and Macquarie Bank.
Cromwell Property – Chris Hansen has been promoted to oversee development and project management initiatives in both Europe and Australia. Hansen joined Cromwell in 2013 and has experience in both development and project management. Hansen will commence in the role from 1 February.
Investec – Mark Bladon has been appointed to head the residential and commercial finance provider’s real estate business. Bladon joined Investec in 2006 and most recently led the high growth corporate real estate lending business. He replaces Gary Dobson, who is retiring after 32 years at the bank and ten years as head of real rstate. Prior to joining Investec. Bladon spent 12 years at Singer & Friedlander where his roles included Credit officer with responsibility for Real Estate.
BNP Paribas Real Estate Investment Management – Benoit de la Boulaye has been appointed to head up the firm’s UK business. He started his career in Paris and has worked for BNP Paribas REIM since 2011. Prior to joining BNP Paribas REIM, Benoit worked at the Boston Consulting as a strategy consultant and, earlier in his career, he was in charge of transaction and portfolio management of Real Estate Investments at Caisse des Depots et Consignations. BNP Paribas Real Estate’s research and innovation departments have come together under the management of chief research and innovation officer Richard Malle. Malle joined BNP Paribas Real Estate in 2007. Since 2017, he has been global head of research. Olivier Sellès, newly-appointed head of innovation, will oversee the innovation team while reporting directly to Malle. Sellès joined BNP Paribas Real Estate in 2018 as head of smart buildings. From 2013 to 2018, Sellès worked for Bouygues Immobilier. Previously, he worked for 8 years as an R&D project manager for Saint Gobain, and spent a year of consulting experience with the Boston Consulting.
Digital Colony – Latifa Tefridj-Gaillard has joined the digital infrastructure investment firm as managing director and head of Europe capital formation. Tefridj-Gaillard will be responsible for building and maintaining strong relationships within the European investment community and focus on advancing Digital Colony’s strategy in the region. She joins from Goldman Sachs, where she most recently served as managing director, head of UK institutions solution sales since 2010. Prior to this role, among others at Goldman Sachs, she worked on the structured equity solutions team within the investment banking division.
KGAL – Anke Sax has been appointed COO and CTO, with responsibility for the organisation and operations of the KGAL Group and the expansion of its digitalisation strategy. Sax has more than 30 years’ experience in the financial sector. Most recently, she held the role of COO at Deutsche WertpapierService Bank in Frankfurt, having previously been CIO at Daimler Financial Services in Stuttgart. She also held the role of CIO commercial banking at Commerzbank.
Lazard – Adam Handwerker has joined the firm’s financial advisory business as a managing director to focus on capital advisory for global real estate funds. Prior to joining Lazard, Handwerker served as managing director at Rialto Capital Management, and, since 2004, held various real estate fund raising roles at Hodes Weill & Associates and at Credit Suisse.
St Modwen Properties – Alison Nimmo will be appointed as a non-executive director of the Company with effect from 1 February. She will join the audit, nomination and remuneration committees of the board on her appointment. Nimmo has more than 30 years’ experience in the real estate sector and was formerly CEO of The Crown Estate between 2012 and 2019. She previously held senior roles at the London 2012 Olympic Games for over eight years, becoming director of design and regeneration of the Olympic Delivery Authority. Prior to this, she led major regeneration projects in Sheffield and Manchester having been a consultant at KPMG.
Hodes Weill & Associates – Matt Hershey has become a partner of the global real estate advisory firm. In this role, Hershey will continue to work with institutional investors across the range of Hodes Weill’s offerings and transactions. In addition, he will assume responsibility for overseeing the firm’s global team of institutional coverage and distribution professionals, as the global head of distribution. Hershey joined Hodes Weill in 2012. Rima Batal has joined the firm in London as a vice president, with primary responsibility for institutional investor coverage in the Middle East and Europe. Previously, Batal was a VP and head of business development for GAK Capital. Yoshiko Nakamura joined as a VP, responsible for covering Japanese institutional investors. Previously, Nakamura was a senior manager at AMP Capital Investors in Tokyo. Alexander Sadighi joined as a VP in New York, with responsibility for coverage of institutional investors and consultants in North America. Previously, he was responsible for investor relations, business development and market research at Dune Real Estate Partners.
Montano Asset Management – The German commercial real estate asset manager has appointed Alexander Remy as fund manager. Remy was previously VP in the portfolio management of DWS Real Estate. Prior to that, he spent several years in business development at Union Investment, and in the transaction business at LaSalle Investment Management.
Southern Grove – The property developer has appointed Tarek Jumah as COO. Jumah was formerly the company’s head of PBSA development but will now take on day-to-day responsibility for all development activity across the business, as well as joint ventures and the operational aspects of the growing business. He joined Southern Grove at the start of 2019 but, prior to that, had spent five years at a global consultancy gaining valuable experience advising banks, funds and investors on their development finance, forward funding commitments and acquisitions.
Patrizia – The €46bn real assets manager has hired PGGM Investments’ Mathieu Elshout to lead its newly created sustainability and impact investing role. Elshout, who starts his new role in March, joins from PGGM where he last held the position of senior director real estate EMEA responsible for pan-European investments. He was also responsible for delivering high sustainability performance across the private real estate portfolio of PGGM. He is currently a non-executive director at real assets sustainability benchmark provider GRESB, a sustainability product council co-chair at Urban Land Institute and also a member of the investor advisory council at real estate association INREV.
River & Mercantile – Ian Berry, former head of infrastructure equity at Aviva Investors, has been appointed to establish an infrastructure investment business. The £45bn investment group said a number of Berry’s former colleagues would be joining him in the near future to assist in the growth of the business. Berry joined Aviva Investors in 2009, establishing their infrastructure business by initially launching infrastructure debt strategies before moving on to an infrastructure equity income strategy and building the asset manager’s infrastructure equity platform.
Atrato Group – John Mahony, Haffiz Kala, Gary Chesterton and Gerald Bishop have joined the asset management and advisory group. Mahony has been appointed head of compliance. He was compliance director at MetLife Investment Management and chief compliance officer at Places for People. Kala joins as a director, fund finance, with a focus on the finance, tax and operations of Supermarket Income REIT. He most recently spent four years at PIMCO, focusing on the financial control and treasury for its private equity, real estate and credit funds. Chesterton also joins the fund finance team, as a manager, and is responsible for the accounting for Supermarket Income REIT. Bishop joins as assistant director, fund management, and is responsible for managing the investment transaction activity for Atrato Group. He held fund management roles at M&G Real Estate as well as Investra Capital.
