Lendlease, Stoneweg, CBRE, Harworth Group, Countryside Properties, Savills IM, KKR, Capital Dynamics, Wedlake Bell, BF.direkt, Blackstone, Hodes Weill & Associates, Crossbay, Gieag Immobilien, Glenhawk, Bank of Ireland, McKay Securities, Forest Investment Associates, Blackstone

KKR – Tim Short and Benoit Allehaut joined the firm’s global infrastructure team as managing directors and Benjamin Droz has joined as principal. Based in New York, Short, Allehaut and Droz will focus on sourcing renewable energy and energy transition investments in North America. They join KKR from Capital Dynamics, where Short and Allehaut served as managing directors of the firm’s dedicated clean energy infrastructure team, and where Droz served as a vice president. KKR infrastructure Tim Short and Benoit Allehaut.

LaSalle Investment Management – Michael Zerda is rejoining the firm to head up its debt and special situations platform and value-add equity strategies. Zerda will work closely with Amy Klein Aznar, who will transition to the role of executive chair of debt and special situations later this year. Later in the year Zerda will become the head of debt and special situations. Zerda brings a 20-plus year track record of equity and debt investing in European real estate. He was most recently head of Europe for Blackstone’s real estate debt strategies. Aznar will remain closely involved in investment strategy and decision making, client relationships and communication, and will serve on the debt and special situations investment committee. Her decision to move to the role of executive chair will reduce her day-to-day responsibilities and enable her to devote more time to her family’s business interests. Aznar and Zerda worked together from 2009 to 2016 while building the debt and special situations at LaSalle.  

Lendlease – Justin Gabbani has been appointed to head up operations in Asia. As Asia CEO, he will be filling a vacancy left by Tony Lombardo, who has been Lendlease’s CEO designate since February. Gabbani joined Lendlease in 2003 and most recently held the role of CFO Asia. Prior to that, he was head of investment and capital markets responsible for investments, capital raising, investor relations, product development and research across both Asia and Europe. Lendlease has also appointed Deborah Yates as chief people officer. She joins Lendlease from KPMG, where she was the firm’s national managing partner for people and corporate affairs. 

Stoneweg – Miguel Casas has been appointed to the newly created position of managing director of Stoneweg Hospitality. Stoneweg currently has a significant hotels portfolio consisting of 1,500 rooms across southern Europe. Miguel Casas has 15 years of experience in the hospitality investment market. He joins Stoneweg after a 10-year career at CBRE where he was latterly head of hotel investment properties in continental Europe, with responsibility for CBRE’s pan European activity in the sector, and before that head of hotel investment properties in Spain.

Crossbay – The pan-European last-mile logistics platform has appointed Clemens Goss to lead its German team. Goss joins from Munich-based developer Gieag Immobilien, where he was head of commercial and logistics real estate. Goss started his logistics property career at e-commerce giant Amazon. He was later head of an industrial real estate agency at JLL. Goss will be joined by Cristian Siegmund, previously a transactions manager at CBRE, with positions in both Frankfurt and London. Siegmund, who joins Crossbay as a vice president, will focus on securing new acquisitions.

Forest Investment Associates – Mike Clutter has become the key executive for portfolio analytics, research and technology function at the US firm. In the newly-created role, Clutter will explore and deliver revenue-generating opportunities offered by carbon, ecosystem markets and other value drivers essential to the firm’s business. FIA has also appointed MaryKate Bullen as director of sustainability and ESG, another new position. Bullen has worked with investment and industry groups to advance issues of greenhouse gas accounting in forestry, climate risk management, ESG disclosure practices and standardised metrics for impact management in sustainable forestry and natural climate solutions. The firm made the two appointments following a reorganisation of its North and South American operations to align with the needs of investors who view timberland investing in a geographically broader context. FIA veteran Mike Cerchiaro leads the new unit, known as the investment management team.

Harworth Group – The regenerator of land and property for development and investment has appointed Tom Loughran as head of investor and stakeholder relations. Working closely with CEO Lynda Shillaw and CFO Kitty Patmore, Loughran will oversee Harworth’s investor relations and financial calendar programme, including the preparation of results materials, alongside managing relationships with key stakeholders. He joins Harworth from NewRiver REIT, the specialist owner and manager of retail and leisure assets, where he spent three years, latterly as head of investor relations. Prior to this, he spent seven years at KMPG, where he was part of its Makinson Cowell consultancy business.

Glenhawk – The provider of short-term property finance has appointed Christie Cook to the newly created role of head of product. She will be responsible for launching new products, whilst also enhancing the existing unregulated commercial and residential and regulated residential product range. Cook joins Glenhawk from Bank of Ireland, where she spent nine years, including the last five as head of product and pricing.

Countryside Properties – John Martin joins the UK housebuilder’s board as non-executive chair designate and will succeed David Howell as non-executive chair on 1 May. Howell will step down from the board on 30 April. This follows Countryside’s announcement on 3 December 2020 of Howell’s intention to stand down as chair of the company during 2021. Martin served at Ferguson, the FTSE 100 leading specialist distributor of plumbing and heating products, for over nine years to November 2019, most recently as group CEO and prior to that as group CFO. Before joining Ferguson, he was a partner at Alchemy Partners, the private equity group, and prior to that was CFO of Travelex and Hays. He is currently a non-executive director of Ocado, where he serves on the nomination and audit committees.

Savills Investment Management – The international real estate investment manager has appointed Eleanor McMillan as residential investment director. She will report to Jon Crossfield, head of strategic partnerships, who will lead Savills IM’s continued growth in residential. McMillan has transferred from the Savills operational capital markets division, where she gained over eight years’ experience working on a range of residential investment and development transactions.

McKay Securities – The South East and London focussed UK REIT has appointed Helen Sachdev as a non-executive director. Sachdev will also become a member of the nomination, remuneration and audit and risk committees supporting board succession planning. Sachdev brings over 30 years of real estate and commercial experience following senior roles in a number of organisations including Tesco; the retail banking division of Barclays and estate agent Marsh and Parsons, for which she was COO. She is currently chair of the Loughborough Building Society and a non-executive director of Wilmington. Previous non-executive director roles have included Communisis, Athelney Trust, Optivo Housing Association and Genesis Housing Association.

Hodes Weill & Associates – Michael Mendelsohn has joined the global real assets advisory firm as principal. In this role, he is responsible for covering institutional investors and consultants in North America and will work closely with partner Matt Hershey to grow the firm’s global distribution platform. Most recently, Mendelsohn was a principal at Blackstone, where he spent the last 10 years focused on expanding the firm’s distribution footprint. Mendelsohn began his career at Citigroup Alternative Investments, where he served in a variety of capacities including institutional investor relations and fund management for the firm’s private equity and real estate business.

BF direkt – The specialist for real estate finance company has appointed Tobias Gabat director of real estate finance of BF.direkt. Together with Patrick Remmele, the other director of real estate finance, Gabat will assume the management of regional accounts, most of them representing developers, condominium conversion developers, contractors and commercial real estate investors. Before joining the company, Gabat completed a two-year stint with Südwestbank, where his responsibilities included the corporate and real estate loan portfolio management, sourcing, and risk management, among others. He previously worked for KPMG Stuttgart, Patrimonium Asset Management in Switzerland, and EnBW in Karlsruhe. Anke Leibbrand, also from Südwestbank, has been appointed to join BF.solutions as director of loan agency and trustee services. Leibbrand previously spent five years with Südwestbank, serving as joint lead manager and collateral trustee in the structured finance agency unit. Before that, she occupied comparable positions with LBBW and Deutsche Bank for an overall period of 14 years. Andrea Witke has joined BF Group as accounting manager. In this role, she will be responsible for the financial accounting of BF.direkt and all member companies of the BF Group.

Wedlake Bell –  The law firm has appointed Ollie Embley (private client) and Rachel Walbourn (real estate) as partners in the Firm. Embley has been with the firm since 2007 when he joined as a trainee. He specialises in tax planning for high-net-worth UK domiciled and resident individuals with expertise in planning with residential property. Walbourn joined Wedlake Bell in 2011 and qualified in 2014. She is an expert in development work, advising leading developer clients on the acquisition and disposal of residential and mixed-use developments, including the disposal of affordable housing land to registered providers. 

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