People moves: Dale joins Macquarie as SVP to support infrastructure debt investments

CBRE, Sera Global, Catella, Macquarie, BlackRock, Bouwinvest Real Estate Investors, JLL, Schroder REIT, Macquarie, ALMEA Capital, Heimstaden Bostad, MaxCap, Peak Energy Investments, Patrizia

Macquarie Asset Management – Lucy Dale has been appointed senior vice-president. She will support the origination and execution of infrastructure debt investments while helping to deepen institutional investor-client relationships across the platform. Dale joins from BlackRock, where she was most recently a director in its infrastructure debt team. Prior to joining BlackRock in 2018, Dale was at IFM Investors from  2013 where she was an associate director in the European debt investments team.  She also worked at SMBC, WestLB and PwC.  

Bouwinvest Real Estate Investors – Gijs Plantinga has been appointed director for strategic business development, a position previously held by Marleen Bosma, who was appointed CCO at Bouwinvest last year. Robert Wagenaar will take over Plantinga’s former role as the new director North American investments, working from the head office in Amsterdam. Wagenaar previously held the position of head of portfolio operations and transactions at Bouwinvest’s international real estate investment arm.

Patrizia – Jan-Christoph Klein has been appointed head of global client solutions for MENA. Klein will set up and establish Patrizia’s first office in the GCC region to further strengthen relationships with existing clients and accelerate the company’s capital-raising activities among new institutional and private wealth clients in the Middle East. Klein spent eight years at Blackstone, and subsequently PJT Park Hill, where he was a managing director focused on capital raising for real assets, private equity and private debt globally. Prior to Blackstone, Klein held positions at Partners Group as the head of real estate investment solutions Europe and more recently co-founded an independent capital advisory firm.

CBRE – The investment banking team from real assets adviser Sera Global has joined the company. Leo van den Thillart, Sera Global CEO, has joined CBRE as global head of investment banking. The Sera team complements and enhances CBRE’s global investment banking capabilities with the addition of professionals in offices worldwide, including New York, London, Los Angeles, Toronto, Boston, Frankfurt, Barcelona, Madrid and Seoul. Belinda Norman-Walker is to lead its technology, media and telecoms sector vertical for Continental Europe. Based in Amsterdam, Norman-Walker will work alongside country management teams as well as global and regional industry specialists in the region. She joins from Uber, where she has led commercial real estate services for its EMEA business since 2019.

Peak Energy Investments – Gavin Adda has joined the Stonepeak-backed platform as CEO and Geoffrey Jahnke as COO. Both join from TotalEnergies Renewables Asia, where Adda previously served as CEO, and Jahnke previously served as COO/CFO. Before joining TotalEnergies, Adda founded multiple start-ups in the renewables sector, including Cleantech Solar, which became one of the largest B2B-focused developers in India and was subsequently acquired by Shell and Keppel in 2021. Prior to that, Adda held various executive level positions at REC Solar and Samsung Group. Before his time at TotalEnergies, Jahnke served as COO at Cleantech Solar. Jahnke was previously the head of corporate development for Samsung Engineering & Construction.

Catella – Florence Shaw has joined Catella’s institutional investor client relations and capital-raising team. Prior to Catella, Shaw was a director in JLL’s funds placement team in the London office for seven years and previously spent over 10 years at Societe Generale’s corporate and investment bank division in the corporate finance team and in the real estate department working on both debt and equity sides. 

Irish Residential Properties REIT – Margaret Sweeney has notified the board of her intention to retire, having served as CEO for the past six years. Sweeney will retire from her role as CEO and executive director in April 2024 and has agreed to continue with the business beyond her six months notice period if necessary, to ensure an orderly transition to her successor. Sweeney joined the board as an independent director in 2016 and was appointed CEO in November 2017.

Schroder REIT – Sanjay Patel has been appointed independent non-executive director with effect from 1 January 2024.  Patel will be a member of the audit, management engagement, and nomination committees. He will replace Stephen Bligh on his retirement as chair of the audit committee, which is expected to take place before the company’s next AGM. Patel is currently CFO and a board member of Cadogan Group. Prior to this role, Patel served as group finance director on the board of Strutt & Parker. He is also a member of the audit and risk committee at London & Quadrant Housing Association.

Knight Frank – Craig Shute has been named CEO for Greater China, based in Hong Kong to succeed Piers Brunner. Shute has had an extensive senior management career in the real estate industry, including almost eight years leading CBRE in Hong Kong and Taiwan between 2008 and 2016. Most recently, Shute was the MD of JLL in Victoria, Australia. The real estate consultancy firm has also appointed John Styles as CIO, following Matthew McDonald’s promotion to CEO. Styles has been a member of the Knight Frank Investment Management board since the business launched in 2012 and is responsible for UK pension fund and insurance company client mandates. He will continue to be responsible for the UK direct portfolio of Local Pensions Partnership Investments. He will also continue in his role as chair of the firm’s investment committee. Emily Relf has been appointed head of APAC living sectors. Based in Singapore, Relf will lead the expansion of Knight Frank’s living sectors capabilities in Asia-Pacific and advise outbound capital from the region into the US, UK, and EU. She will also be responsible for strengthening Knight Frank’s partnership with Berkadia. Relf will also work closely with Knight Frank’s team in Australia to grow a network of local partners while identifying new opportunities, particularly in the Australian BTR market.

MaxCap Group – Penny Tao has joined as director of private capital with a focus on capital raising strategies across the Asian investor community. In a second appointment, Rory Hain is joining as associate, capital – institutional mandates, responsible for investor servicing of MaxCap’s key institutional investor clients. Tao joins MaxCap from HSBC where she has had a 19-year career working across Australia, China, Hong Kong, and the UK in a variety of retail banking, wealth management and private banking roles. Based in Melbourne, Tao reports to Ben Klein, head of private capital. Prior to his appointment, Hain was with Westpac Commercial Bank in Brisbane, where he spent three years most recently as a relationship manager in their property division. Before this, Hain held civil engineering roles for five years with United Finance Group, Acciona and FKG Group. He will report to Domenic Demaria, associate director capital – institutional mandates.

Clearbell Capital – Alice Murray has been promoted to head of asset management and sustainability. Murray will be responsible for leading the ongoing development and implementation of Clearbell’s ESG strategy across the firm’s portfolio and continue to lead all asset management activities. Murray joined the asset management team in August 2021, having previously worked at Orchard Street Investment Management and as part of the City agency team at Savills. Murray previously held the role of asset management and sustainability director at Clearbell.

TIAS School for Business and Society – Maarten van der Spek has been appointed adjunct professor in real estate. Van der Spek will also continue his work as an independent adviser in the field of investment and strategy. Van der Spek will specialise in the themes of real estate data analytics and international investment dynamics. His previous experiences include working at ING Real Estate, PGGM, ADIA, and at BNP Paribas Real Estate Investment Management, responsible for the investment strategy.

Heimstaden Bostad – Rita Berg Hansen has been appointed group director of privatisation. Hansen previously held similar management roles at companies such as Bonava, Veidekke Eiendom.

ALMEA Capital – The institutional property investment and advisory firm has appointed Marcel Kriegseis associate director of investment management. Kriegseis was most recently an investment manager at Arminius. His previous experience includes roles at companies such as Savills Investment Management, Apleona, and Bilfinger.