Cromwell EREIT, Patrizia, Catella Residential IM, Europa Capital, AuxiSolid, Robeco Germany, MidOcean Partners, Beos, Bouwfonds, JLL, Tepilo

Cromwell European Real Estate Investment TrustSimon Garing has been named acting CEO and executive director of CEREIT, the real estate investment trust listed by Cromwell Property Group in Singapore last year. He takes over from Philip Levinson who left at the end of last month to pursue other business interests, including the provision of advisory services to the Cromwell Property Group. Garing has stepped down from his role as the chief capital officer of Cromwell Property Group immediately prior to assuming the appointment. He was previously managing director at Bank of America Merrill Lynch Asia Pacific and Bank of America Merrill Lynch Australia. Garing will be based in Singapore. The search for a permanent appointee to the role is underway. Elena Arabadjieva has been appointed COO. Arabadjieva will continue to head investor relations.

PatriziaMarleen Bikker-Bekkers has been appointed European investment director for Patrizia Multi Managers, the new name for Sparinvest Property Investors which was acquired by Patrizia last October. She will be responsible for sourcing investment opportunities as well as overseeing existing partner relationships for the multi-manager funds. Bikker-Bekkers joins from AuxiSolid where she was one of three partners for four years, advising institutional investors on portfolio strategy, access to real estate markets and structuring of new investments. Before joining AuxiSolid, Bikker-Bekkers spent eight years at Aberdeen Asset Management, first as a researcher, then later as deputy fund manager.

Catella Residential Investment ManagementMichael Fink has been appointed as third managing director. He joins Michael Keune and Xavier Jongen. He is responsible for business development and investor relations and will also be in charge of all property investment funds. Fink is joining the company from Robeco Germany, where he was the executive director for institutional clients such as banks, pension funds or investment consultants. Prior to this, he worked as a portfolio manager in the treasury department at DZ Bank in Düsseldorf. Xavier Jongen will focus fully on the ongoing development of the Berlin-based residential property specialist and will be leaving the management board of Catella Real Estate. Jongen has been a member the board since 2015.

Europa Capital – The pan-European real estate investment manager has promoted Helen Muir to partner. Muir’s primary focus will be the administration of existing Europa Capital funds and supporting new product development and investment strategies. She joined Europa Capital as a fund accountant in 2008 from private equity firm MidOcean Partners and was promoted in 2013 to fund controller. Fiona Clark has been promoted to become group finance manager associate director, James Keast has become an asset finance senior associate and Louisa Powrie has also been promoted to become a senior executive assistant. Yuko Burrows has been promoted to the role of investor relations senior associate. 

Beos – The German real estate asset manager has appointed Kerstin Lauerbach to lead its portfolio management. The newly created head of portfolio management role was established to manage the growth of Beos’ €2.6bn in assets under management. Prior to joining Beos, Lauerbach was an authorised signatory and European residential fund manager with the investment manager Bouwfonds Investment Management.

JLL –  Nick Charnock has been appointed to head the real estate and investment management firm’s residential digital agency in the EMEA. This is a new role based in London, which will support the JLL’s growing market share of residential transactions across EMEA and offer new technology solutions to clients looking to buy, sell, or rent residential property. Charnock joins from UK-based online estate agency Tepilo, where he spent two years as CEO.