Revetas Capital, RDI REIT, Viewranks Estates, Blackstone, Revera, Schroders Capital, Essensys, Macquarie Asset Management, JP Morgan, Peakside Capital, Tishman Speyer, Crossbay, Westbridge Advisory, JLL, Cushman & Wakefield, BNP Paribas Real Estate, Node, GSA, Columbia Threadneedle Investments, Barings, Deep Energy, Heimstaden, Savills, Peakside Capital Advisors, CBRE, Exel Composites, Caverion

Crossbay – Former Mirastar investment director Amos Chia has been appointed as head of acquisitions. Chia was part of the founding team at pan-European logistics developer and investor Mirastar. Prior to that, he occupied positions at Revetas Capital Advisors and more recently Delin Capital, where he worked with Crossbay’s current head of asset management Ben Ryan. Chia will work closely with Crossbay’s head of logistics and former Logicor director Marco Riva.

Blackstone – Janice Lin has been appointed to head Blackstone’s real estate business in Canada. Prior to joining Blackstone, Lin served as CIO at Revera. Previously, she held senior investment roles across multiple sectors at the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board.

Macquarie Asset Management – Gabriele Duesberg has been appointed managing director to support the firm’s activities in environmental and energy transition infrastructure in EMEA. Duesberg’s appointment will assist Macquarie in its efforts to transform the region’s infrastructure landscape to better meet the environmental and decarbonisation needs of infrastructure providers and their consumers. Based in London, the role will see Duesberg supporting infrastructure investment and asset management activities in sectors such as the electrification of transport, waste management, and biofuels. Duesberg joins Macquarie following a 16-year career with JP Morgan where she most recently led the firm’s investment banking activities in the EMEA region’s power and utility sectors.

Columbia Threadneedle Investments – The global asset manager has appointed Christopher Mahon as head of dynamic real return. As part of the asset allocation team, Mahon will lead manage the £2.4bn Threadneedle Dynamic Real Return fund and other real return strategies. Mahon will join in September, having most recently been head of EMEA multi-asset at Barings Asset Management. He joined the firm in 2012 as director of asset allocation research. Prior to this he was head of investment strategy at Rand Merchant Bank and a senior analyst at Coronation Fund Managers. He started his career as a consultant at Oliver Wyman Strategy Consulting.

Polhem Infra - Karin Karlström has been appointed as chief executive officer of the infrastructure platform established in 2019 by the Swedish national pension buffer funds AP1, AP3 and AP4. Karlström has been its acting CEO since November 2021, replacing former chief Mikael Lundin, who stepped down in connection with the company entering a new phase of growth. Karlström was a member of the board of directors of Polhem Infra between February and November 2021, having also previously worked in investment banking at Carnegie, and in business acquisitions and strategic investments at telecoms firm Telia.

CBRE – Lydia Dutton has been appointed director and regional sustainability lead, a new role at the property consultancy. Dutton will join the firm’s ESG consultancy team and will be based in Birmingham in the UK with a national remit. She will be responsible for driving CBRE’s environmental and sustainability agenda in the regions, providing external advisory service for clients. Dutton has worked for over 15 years in sustainable real estate. She also previously co-founded a circular economy tech startup. Dutton joins from the University of Birmingham, where she was sustainability manager with responsibility for developing ESG strategy. She previously worked for Argent as environment project manager at its King’s Cross scheme.

Schroders Capital – Matthew Baddeley has joined as a retail investment and asset management specialist in the Manchester real estate team. Baddeley joins this newly-created role at Schroders Capital from RDI REIT and brings 15 years of asset management experience across all sectors, with a most recent focus on retail warehousing and shopping centres. Baddeley has previously also worked at The Crown Estate and Savills. Charles Twist has joined as an office asset management specialist in the London real estate team, another newly-created role, initially focused on the Central and Greater London portfolio. Twist joins from Viewranks Estates and has over 10 years’ experience in the real estate industry, with a particular focus on the Central London office market. He has previously worked at Farebrother and Gerald Eve.

Essensys – The flexible workspace technology company has appointed Chenai Gondo to the newly created role of chief of staff. Gondo joins essensys to support in the delivery of high priority initiatives related to business growth, development, and transformation. Gondo joins from British Land, where she was senior strategy executive, and was responsible for crafting corporate and sector strategy, researching and implementing innovative solutions in real estate. Prior to British Land, she worked at McKinsey & Company for over four years. She is also a Board Member of the UK PropTech Association.

BNP Paribas Real Estate – Fergus Keane has been appointed to to lead its Central London investment team. Keane is currently an international partner in Cushman & Wakefield’s London markets team and has more than 20 years’ experience in the commercial property market throughout the UK and Ireland.

Westbridge Advisory – Danuta Grzywacz has been appointed country head Poland. Grzywacz began her career in 2002 as a senior sales specialist at Bank BPH in Poland before moving to Raiffeisen Bank Polska four years later, where she was responsible for large international corporate clients. She later worked at PKO BP and Econocom. She recently worked as as director at JLL in Warsaw.

Cushman & Wakefield – Jamie Renison has been promoted to head of life sciences agency in the UK. Renison joined Cushman & Wakefield in 2012 as a specialist in the South East market, increasingly focusing on the life sciences and technology sectors. In his new role, Renison will have a national remit as a key figure within the UK life sciences team, responsible for leading leasing activity across the UK, and working closely with Nick Blevins who leads occupier representation work within the sector.

Morrison & Co – The infrastructure investor has introduced a new partnership model for the firm, appointing 14 inaugural partners across six countries. The inaugural partners are: Paul Newfield, Peter Coman, Jason Boyes, Phillippa Harford and Kellee Clark, all based in New Zealand; Geoff Hutchinson, Mark Mudie, Gordon Hay and Steven Fitzgerald, based in Australia; William Smales and Perry Offutt in the US; Nicole Walker in Singapore; Vincent Gerritsen in the UK and Vimal Vallabh in Switzerland.

Interstate Equities Corporation – The institutional fund manager and value-add investor has appointed Brendan Gibney director of investments. With the promotion, Gibney, who previously served as the IEC’s VP of acquisitions, will further deepen his integral role and lead the firm’s acquisition activity. Prior to IEC, Gibney was at Partners Group based in their San Francisco office covering North American real estate. Previously, he was on the investments team at The JBG Companies. 

Node – The global alternative residential asset manager has appointed Will Rowson as senior advisor. Rowson will be responsible for advising Node on management and capital raising strategies globally as it seeks to find core-plus and build-to-core capital partners for its bed pipeline. Rowson was previously the CEO of Global Student Accommodation. Rowson is also a strategic advisor for Bricklane, a tech-driven investment platform in the UK. Prior to Global Student Accommodation, Rowson was an equity partner at Hodes Weill & Associates. Prior to Hodes Weil, Rowson was the EMEA CIO for CBRE Global Investors. Rowson also held roles at ING Real Estate Investment Management and Strutt & Parker.

Heimstaden – The European residential real estate company has appointed Amit Kumar as head of operations for the UK. Kumar has spent the past 14 years managing operations for housing and hospitality businesses in the UK. He joins Heimstaden from Savills, where he was the general manager of the 603-unit Allegro Living apartment complex, Birmingham’s largest. 

Caverion – Mikko Kettunen has been appointed as CFO and a member of the group management board of Caverion Corporation as of 8 November 2022 at the latest. Kettunen was most recently CFO of Exel Composites. Prior to that, he has held roles as group CFO at Swiss cable and pipe machinery company Maillefer and as CFO at Foster Wheeler. He has also acted as chairman of the board at the employment service company Bolt.Works. He started his career as a consultant at PWC in Finland.

Peakside Capital Advisors – The European investment manager has appointed Frank Schäfer partner. Previously managing director and head of business development, Schäfer is responsible for investor relations, capital raising and product development. He is based in Peakside’s Frankfurt office. Prior to joining Peakside, Schäfer was managing director at Tishman Speyer in Frankfurt. Before that, he held various positions at Credit Suisse in Zurich and Frankfurt.

Deep Energy Capital – Helen Downie has joined the firm from Foresight Group, where she was an investment director leading renewable energy investments across the capital structure. James McNaught-Davis joins from Modular Geothermal Power and Green Energy Geothermal where he led geothermal investments in Southeast Asia and Africa. McNaught-Davis was previously a partner at WHEB partners and Warburg Pincus in London and New York.

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