People moves: Europa Capital appoints Varandas business development head

Schroders Capital, Primary Health Properties, CBRE IM, HICL Infrastructure, Kelda Group, Bilfinger Project Investments, Deep Energy Capital, BHP, STEAG, Cushman & Wakefield, JLL, Hibernia REIT, Deep Energy Capital, Barings, CBRE, Hollis, Unispace, Europa Capital, Godwin Developments, Aware Super, ISPT, LaSalle

Europa Capital – The pan-European real estate investment manager has appointed Roberto Varandas to the newly created role of head of business development. Varandas will be responsible for leading Europa Capital’s fundraising initiatives as well as expanding new and existing investor and consultant relationships in the EMEA region. Additionally, Varandas will support Europa Capital’s investor relations function. Varandas joins from China Orient Summit Capital where he spent the last five years as head of EMEA, before which he was global head of business development – property at Abrdn between 2011 and 2016. He also served as European head of business development – global real estate at UBS Global Asset Management. 

CBRE Investment Management – Steven Storrs has joined the global real assets investment management firm as head of portfolio management within its indirect private real estate strategies. Based in London, Storrs is responsible for the oversight of the indirect portfolio management teams. Before joining CBRE IM, Storrs was employed by Royal Bank of Canada Capital Markets in Dallas as the head of portfolio management and the head of North America and Asia Pacific Asset Management. Prior to this, he worked with Goldman Sachs in London as the head of EMEA portfolio management and as a VP of acquisitions and asset management for real estate in the US, and with Fortress Investment Group, where he was responsible for managing equity and structured debt investments within the credit funds business.

LaSalle Investment Management – The global real estate investment manager has promoted Katie Hynard and Marc Fauchille to head of UK commercial asset management and head of development and repurposing, Europe, respectively. Hynard will also become the chair of LaSalle’s newly created European asset management board, and Fauchille will become one of the board’s members and lead the specialist European development and repurposing platform. Hynard has been at LaSalle for 10 years, previously as an asset manager and senior operations manager in Europe. Since 2019, Fauchille has served as development and asset management director at LaSalle for France and Luxembourg. Before joining LaSalle, Fauchille was a project and development services associate director at JLL for 10 years.

Aware Super – Michelle McNally has been appointed CEO of the Australian industry superannuation fund’s newly created real estate platform. Aware Super Real Estate has been set up with Altis Property Partners to manage and grow the fund’s A$1.5bn property portfolio. McNally joins Aware Super from ISPT, the property fund management company, owned by industry super funds. McNally will oversee the super fund’s directly-owned Australian build-to-rent, industrial and office property portfolio.

Schroders Capital – Chris Santer has joined the UK real estate team as fund manager responsible for selecting investment strategies that seek to have a measurable positive social and environmental impact, whilst also delivering attractive financial returns. Santer will initially be responsible for selecting investments that seek to address social inequality, focused on deprived areas in the UK. Santer will also lead the effort to expand Schroders Capital’s impact investment framework to deliver similar investments in continental Europe. Santer most recently CIO at Primary Health Properties. Prior to this, Santer has held various roles on pan-European and UK-only real estate funds at PGIM and MGPA. Santer is also non executive director of Impact Healthcare REIT.

HICL Infrastructure – The London-listed infrastructure investment company managed by InfraRed Capital Partners has appointed Liz Barber and Martin Pugh as non-executive directors, with effect from 1 September. Barber was previously at  (Yorkshire Water) where she served as CEO from 2019, having previously served as CFO from 2010. Prior to that she held a number of senior partner roles with Ernst & Young. She serves deputy chair at University of Leeds and is the chair of the Yorkshire and Humber Climate Commission. Barber is a non-executive director of Cranswick and was formerly a non-executive director of KCOM. Pugh has over 35 years in the infrastructure industry, spanning roles in construction, development, investment, asset management and strategic projects. Most recently he has provided executive management support to several major infrastructure projects and prior to this he held senior executive positions within Bilfinger Project Investments.

Hollis – Serina Albayari and Lucia Marisa Gruber have joined the international real estate consultancy firm in Germany. Albayari joins the Berlin office as a senior associate. She also has extensive experience in contract and vendor management. Albayari joins Hollis from CBRE where she led Germany’s largest Amazon warehouse cost optimisation process. Gruber joins as a consultant. Gruber has worked in a freelance capacity honing her architectural planning and design skills since graduating from the Technical University Munich in 2020.

Barings Real Estate – Georgia Videan has joined the real estate manager’s team in London as associate director of loan closing in Europe and APAC, and Imogen Waters has joined the team as ESG analyst in its European real estate equity and debt division. Videan has most recently been part of the property funds team at Australian-owned advisory and funds management firm Gresham. Prior to that, Videan worked at law firm MinterEllison where she acted in a transactional and advisory capacity for a variety of clients. At Barings, Videan will be responsible for the closing and execution of real estate debt investments in Europe and APAC. Waters will be responsible for supporting the evolution and implementation of Barings Real Estate’s ESG strategy, alongside director of European real estate ESG, Kristina Arsenievich. Waters had previously worked at Workman, where as part of the ESG team. Prior to this, Waters worked as an international PR executive at Knight Frank.

Unispace – The PAG-owned global construction firm has appointed Amanda Tham as its global CFO. Tham has more than 25 years of experience in executive leadership positions across multiple industries and countries – including serving as group CFO of the Asia unit of Hiscox, MD of business development for State Street Bank, and CFO for General Electric. Tham will work across all regions Unispace operates in – Asia, EMEA, ANZ and Americas – with her base at Unispace’s London and Singapore studios.

Deep Energy Capital – Sonia Scarselli, BHP’s Xplor Program VP and former VP of exploration and appraisal, has joined the energy investment manager’s advisory council. Prior to joining BHP in 2012, she started her career in the oil industry at ExxonMobil UK in a number of exploration and geology roles. Joachim Rumstadt, former CEO of German power company STEAG, has also joined the advisory council. Rumstadt has served on the board of drilling company Daldrup & Soehne and miner RAG amongst others, as well as being an advisory board member to the International Energy Agency. 

Hibernia REIT – Tom Edwards-Moss has been appointed as CEO, following firm’s recent acquisition by Brookfield. He has been CFO of Hibernia since June 2014. He takes over from Kevin Nowlan, who will remain an executive director and continue to work as part of the senior management team in his new role as a senior adviser.

Cushman & Wakefield – The global real estate services firm has appointed Ben Binns as head of EMEA cross border retail agency. Binns will join next month from JLL where he is a national director and head of cross border retail and leisure in its EMEA retail team. Prior to joining JLL in 2011, he spent 5 years at King Sturge based in Central & Eastern Europe.

TRIG – The London-listed renewables infrastructure group advised by InfraRed Capital Partners is to appoint Richard Morse non-executive director effect from 18 July. Morse will then succeed Helen Mahy as chairman of TRIG in the fourth quarter of the year following a transition period. Morse is a partner at Opus Corporate Finance, and was previously a partner at Greenhill & Co, a managing director at Goldman Sachs, and deputy director General at Ofgem. He also brings a wealth of experience in investment company governance, having been chairman of JLEN Environmental Assets Group since its IPO in 2014. Tove Feld will assume the role of senior independent director from John Whittle, who was recently appointed chairman of the audit committee.

Godwin Developments - The UK property developer has appointed Tom Smallbone head of residential development. Smallbone’s remit will include driving growth across the business’ pipeline of residential acquisitions, including both build-to-rent and affordable homes. Prior to joining Godwin, he worked as a project manager across the hotel and student accommodation sectors and before this was a premiership rugby professional. Smallbone joined Godwin Developments in March 2020 as a land manager and was promoted to the position of associate director in December 2020.