EverGen Infrastructure, Arrow Global, Brookfield Asset Management, Morgan Stanley, Heimstaden, W&W Asset Management, Prime US REIT Management, Keppel REIT Management, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, Dentons, Ardent, GPT, First Super, Nuveen, LaSalle, KGAL
EverGen Infrastructure – Ford Nicholson has been appointed interim executive chair and Mischa Zajtmann as interim CEO and director of the company. Chase Edgelow, who co-founded the company and has led EverGen from inception as CEO and a member of the board of directors of the company, will step down from his management and board roles to pursue other opportunities. Edgelow will stay on as a strategic advisor to the company providing organisational support and continuity. Nicholson is the former deputy chairman of InterOil Corporation. He has also co-founded and served on the board of numerous other energy companies and is an active and respected global player in the private equity space. Nicholson is stepping up from his current chair role, to dedicate his attention and focus to several near-term opportunities while Zajtmann will focus on execution of a set of near-term milestones, such as completing the RNG expansion at Fraser Valley Biogas and advancing core projects. Jamie Betts has also been promoted to the role of COO. Betts previously served as the VP of operations and has been instrumental in advancing the Fraser Valley Biogas RNG expansion project.
Nuveen Real Estate – Caroline Pellmann has joined the firm’s European debt team as senior director from Berlin Hyp, where she was responsible for the sourcing, negotiation and execution of mortgage-backed senior loans in Germany and Central Europe. Based in Nuveen’s Frankfurt office, Pellmann is primarily responsible for sourcing and executing loan deals in Germany and across continental Europe to support Nuveen’s pan-European debt strategies. Karolina Wojtowicz has also joined the team as a director. She was previously at LaSalle Investment Management, where she was underwriting, structuring and executing transactions in the UK and Western Europe. Based in London, she works with Peter Hansell in origination and execution of debt financing deals in the UK and Continental Europe across different investment mandates. Jason Rodrigues has been promoted to senior director. In his new role, he will lead strategic, longer-term asset management efforts to proactively identify market distress opportunities and determine what portfolio management initiatives are required.
GPT – Russell Proutt has been selected to be the next CEO and managing director to replace outgoing CEO, Bob Johnston. Proutt is expected to join GPT by the first quarter of next year. Proutt was most recently CFO at Charter Hall since 2017 and prior to that a global asset manager at Brookfield Asset Management for 12 years, mostly based in Canada. Prior to joining Brookfield, Proutt spent 15 years in investment banking and the financial services sector in North America.
KGAL – Florian Martin, currently capital MD, and André Zücker, currently real estate MD, will take over the company management together as co-CEOs. Martin and Zücker will take over the management of the company on 1 January 2024. Gert Waltenbauer, CEO, and Klaus Wolf, CIO, will step down as planned by the end of 2023.
Arrow Global – Zachary Vaughan will serve as the group’s head of real estate and join its investment committee, and Toni McDermott will become the CIO of credit and direct lending. Vaughan was most recently at Brookfield Asset Management, where he was a managing partner in Brookfield’s real estate business. In his most recent role, Vaughan served as CEO and a member of the board. Prior to joining Brookfield, Vaughan worked at CPP Investments and Reichmann International. McDermott joins from Morgan Stanley APAC, where she served as the managing director of loan solutions and Securitisation. Prior to this, she was a managing director in Centerbridge Partners Europe, responsible for the firm’s asset backed special situations business in Europe.
Heimstaden – Louise Schaldemose joins the European residential real estate manager as director of group letting. Schaldemose brings over eight years of experience within letting and management at Ikano and home in Copenhagen, Denmark. Gerrit Sperling has been appointed country manager in Germany. Interim country manager Marianne Frønsdal will step into the role of deputy country manager. Sperling’s recent roles include being MD at BauBeCon, WVB Centuria, and the In-West Group. His recent positions include head of transactions at ADO Properties and head of portfolio management/transaction at the Adler Group.
First Super – Mick Stephens has joined the board as an associate director. Stephens, currently holding positions as the CEO of Timber Queensland and a director of Forestry Australia, has worked in the forestry industry and related fields for more than 30 years as a resource economist, including a two-year secondment to the Canadian Forest Service and senior roles in the Australian Government in research and policy including with the CSIRO and ABARES.
Prime US REIT Management – Cindy Teo has been appointed chief financial officer. Teo was previously with Logos Property for over 2 years, initially as group financial controller and then deputy CFO. She has also worked with the OUE group for more than a decade and held various positions in finance, including a role with the manager of OUE Hospitality REIT between 2013 and 2016. She started her career as an auditor with KPMG Singapore focusing on real estate clients.
Keppel REIT Management – Sebastian Song has been named CFO. Song succeeds Kang Leng Hui who will step down as CFO to pursue other opportunities. Song joined Keppel REIT Management in 2015 and has been the financial controller of the manager since 2020, where his core responsibilities included group reporting and taxation, financial accounting, compliance, annual budgeting and quarterly forecasting. Prior to joining Keppel, he was a senior audit manager with EY, where he was involved in the audit of Singapore-listed corporations and multinational companies across various industries including real estate, construction and shipping, as well as initial public offerings.
Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner – The law firm has appointed Matthew Royko as partner to join the real estate department. He joins the Atlanta office. Royko focuses his practice on real estate banking and finance matters, specifically the areas of secured and unsecured lending transactions and acquisition financings. Royko joins from Dentons.
The Ardent Companies – The US-based real estate investment firm, is expanding its debt platform into the UK and appointed Sunny Lakhtaria to lead the new business. Ardent, which launched its UK business back in 2021, has appointed Lakhtaria to head the UK platform that will target both “fresh lending and debt buying and will be across a range of different structured options”. Lakhtaria is a former partner of Urban Exposure, a member of the executive and credit committees, and more recently set up and launched a real estate bridge financier for an AIM-listed lender.
W&W Asset Management – Eugenio Sangermano and Berthold Garbas, are both transferring from W&W Asset Management to BF.capital as part of the former’s acquisition of a 35% interest in BF.capital. The pair will join incumbent managing director Manuel Köppel to lead BF.capital. In addition, BF.capital is setting up a supervisory board. It will be chaired by Francesco Fedele, the CEO of BF.direkt.
