The Crown Estate, Hines, UBS Asset Management, Natixis, Newmark, Northleaf Capital Partners, Clifford Capital Group
The Crown Estate — Ric Lewis is to take up the role of chair of The Crown Estate, subject to pre-appointment scrutiny by the Treasury Select Committee. Subject to formal appointment, Lewis will succeed Sir Robin Budenberg who has been chair of The Crown Estate since August 2016. The timing of the transition is expected to be finalised in Spring 2025. Until then, Budenberg will continue as chair, ensuring a smooth handover to Lewis, who is currently the executive chair and co-chief investment officer of Tristan Capital Partners, a real estate investment management firm he founded in 2009. Lewis moved to London from the US in the late 1990s to become CIO and a director of AEW Europe, a pan-European real estate investment management business. He then founded and served for several years as CEO of Curzon Global Partners, a London based real estate investment company, owned by AEW Europe.
Hines — The global real estate investor, developer and manager has appointed Joppe van der Heijden and Tom Redecker as managing directors for The Netherlands. This follows the recent appointment of Jan Hein Tiedema as country head for The Netherlands and Thomas Ummels as head of development and construction. Prior to joining Hines, van der Heijden worked as acquisitions director for Dutch real estate developer EDGE (previously OVG), spending more than eight years in various roles focused on commercial real estate development. Redecker worked as director projects for Dutch real estate developer EDGE, also spending over eight years in various roles focused on development and construction.
UBS Asset Management — Larissa Belova has been appointed as chief investment officer and portfolio manager in the US direct real estate team. Belova will report to Matthew Johnson, head of real estate Americas, and work closely with the wider team to manage US direct real estate portfolios. Her real estate experience includes roles in acquisitions, asset and portfolio management, structured finance, capital raising and investor relations. In this role, she will drive the market positioning and growth of the US direct real estate team’s investment strategy, working in close collaboration with the platform’s research, portfolio management, client relations, operations and transactions teams. nBelova joins UBS Asset Management from CBRE Investment Management where she served as portfolio manager of the firm’s diversified open-end core fund. Prior to CBRE Investment Management, she’s held roles at Thor Equities, Jonathan Rose Companies, Praedium Group, NYC Economic Development Corporation, and Lexington Realty Trust.
Natixis Investment Managers — the asset manager is strengthening its sales team in Frankfurt with the appointment of Christina Weiss as its new head of liquidity solutions. Weiss will focus on working with corporate and institutional clients to provide tailor-made liquidity solutions. Weiss brings a wealth of expertise in sales, strategic growth and new business development from renowned institutions in the financial industry. She previously worked at Amundi Asset Management, DWS Group and Deutsche Bank, where in recent years she has worked on liquidity solutions and institutional sales with a strong focus on money market- and ultra short term bond funds.
Newmark — the US commercial real estate adviser and service provider has appointed Dave Aschenbrand as executive managing director. With over 25 years of sector experience spanning capital markets, leasing, supply chain and cold storage solutions, Aschenbrand’s appointment strengthens the company’s industrial cold chain capabilities globally. Based in New Jersey, Aschenbrand joins Newmark with an extensive industrial background that encompasses material handling system integration, temperature-controlled public refrigerated warehousing, industrial cold storage real estate development and multimodal North American and port logistics transportation solutions.
Northleaf Capital Partners — the global private markets investment firm has promoted Jared Waldron to co-head of infrastructure, alongside Jamie Storrow, the current head of infrastructure. As co-head of Northleaf’s infrastructure investment programme, Waldron will partner with Storrow in leading all aspects of Northleaf’s infrastructure investment activities, including investment origination and execution, asset management, team management and business development. He will also join the firm’s executive committee. Waldron joined Northleaf in 2012 as a founding member of the infrastructure team. He has played an important role at the firm for more than 12 years, serving most recently as managing director, head of North America infrastructure investments.
Clifford Capital Group —Sophea Seng has joined as managing director and head of energy & utilities. She will report to Audra Low, who heads client coverage for the group. Seng joins the group from Societe General, where she ran the South & South-East Asia energy financing practice. She has over 17 years of experience in the industry and brings deep insights into the development of energy transition themes in the region. She began her career at Deloitte in Sydney and has worked across Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore.
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