CBRE Capital Advisors, Cushman & Wakefield, JLL, Fiera Real Estate Investments, Citi, PwC, IM Properties, J Murphy & Sons, Knight Frank, Sutton Anderson, The Amherst Group, BentallGreenOak, AustralianSuper, Panattoni
Cushman & Wakefield – James Woodhead has been appointed to head the global real estate services firm’s EMEA wide asset services sustainability and ESG consultancy. Woodhead is experienced in supporting corporates develop environmental strategies and improve energy performance across real estate portfolios to help realise their long-term environmental ambitions and targets. He has been at Cushman & Wakefield for three years. In his new role, he will be leading and providing operational delivery of asset services sustainability and ESG-related topics with a particular focus on cross border investor clients.
BentallGreenOak – Abbe Franchot Borok has been appointed managing director and head of US debt. Borok has overall responsibility for the US debt business, including management of all the core, core plus and high yield debt strategies. Borok will also lead the management and business development activities for the US debt business. Most recently, Borok was managing director and head of CRE and debt strategies at The Amherst Group. Prior to joining Amherst Capital, she was a senior member of the NYC-based commercial real estate lending team at CapitalSource, a division of Pacific Western Bank.
CBRE – Roland Merchant has joined the firm’s investment banking division, as a senior managing director to lead its institutional advisory practice. Merchant has more than 20 years of experience in finance, sales, and real estate investment banking, and specialises in advising real estate investment management firms. Based in New York, he will help to guide real estate investment managers in making strategic decisions and executing across a broad range of real estate assets, with an emphasis on multifamily transactions. Merchant joins CBRE from JLL, where he was most recently senior managing director of capital markets. He had been with JLL and HFF (which JLL acquired in 2019) for the past four years. Prior to that, he spent 13 years with Eastdil Secured and previously worked in the investment banking groups within Cushman & Wakefield and Merrill Lynch. Julian Allen has been appointed executive director and head of real estate investment banking across EMEA. Allen joins from Citigroup where he has been MD and head of the EMEA real estate and lodging group since 2014. Allen will succeed Tim Ryan in the role and will be responsible for the continued expansion of CBRE’s real estate investment banking team across EMEA, working closely with Benjamin Rouah, head of real estate investment banking, continental Europe, to capitalise on the vast opportunities available in the market, with a particular focus on M&A and other corporate finance opportunities. He will also have executive responsibility for CBRE’s equity placement and PropertyMatch businesses in the UK. Allen will start in September. Rachael Clarke from IM Properties will join the industrial and logistics occupier team as a director. Harriet Canby and Jack Buckley join as associate directors from Cushman & Wakefield and J Murphy & Sons respectively, whilst Luke Blythe joins as a senior surveyor from Knight Frank and Cody Wilson joins as a surveyor from Sutton Anderson in Australia. In addition to these external appointments, there has been four internal joiners from across CBRE. Kieran Leay, director will focus on the logistics and retail omnichannel. Jane Asquith, director and Ned Holmes, senior surveyor join the industrial and logistics occupier team and Suzanne Wells, associated director will further enhance the team’s business development activities.
AustralianSuper – Victoria Stanley has joined the Australian superannuation and pension fund’s London property team as an investment director. Stanley joins AustralianSuper from Invesco with 16 years of investment and asset management experience in UK real estate markets across a breadth of commercial and residential sectors. Most recently she has focused on the UK residential sector as the investment manager for the Invesco Real Estate UK residential investment fund.
Fiera Real Estate Investments – Marcus Sperber has been appointed to the board as independent director. Sperber left the role of managing director and global head of real estate at BlackRock in 2019, after 17 years and recently founded NorthCroft Capital, a real estate investment and advisory business.
JLL – Alison White has been appointed senior consultant, workforce, EMEA to support demand for JLL’s workforce advisory services across the region. In this newly created role, White will be instrumental in advising clients on talent analysis, strategic workforce planning and new workforce operating models to help them navigate their changing business needs. She has held senior workforce and change management consultancy roles. White joins JLL from PwC where she was head of strategic workforce planning.
Panattoni – The European logistics developer has appointed Oliver Choppin as its director of finance and operations for the UK, based at its London head office. Choppin heads up the finance and operations platform for Panattoni in the UK. He is responsible for structuring of debt finance, maintaining lending relationships and deploying capital allocations, whilst also managing the operations of the UK development business. He has extensive experience in property finance, having spent 17 years in a FTSE Retail REIT in various treasury and accounting roles.
Serneke Group – Michael Berglin has been appointed president and CEO of the construction company. Berglin has had the role of acting CEO since February this year and will take up his permanent role immediately. He has been employed by Serneke since 2012 and has previously held the role of deputy CEO
