KanAm Grund, Corestate Capital, Hilltop Credit Partners, Nomura, Lincoln Property, Altus Power, Unite Group, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, StepStone, NZ Super Fund, Fokus, DigitalBridge, Oxford Properties, Ancala Partners, Surbana Jurong Capital, CBRE IM, LaSalle, Patrizia, Sequoia Asset Management, Charter Hall

DigitalBridge – Alice Franks has been appointed head of Europe capital formation and Brian Lee as co-head of Asia capital formation at DigitalBridge investment management. Franks and Lee join DigitalBridge from AMP Capital where they were responsible for leading capital formation and investor relations across Europe and Asia respectively, focusing on executing infrastructure equity and credit strategies. Their appointments follow DigitalBridge’s recent acquisition of AMP Capital’s global infrastructure equity investment management business, which has rebranded to InfraBridge. Franks, based in London, brings 20 years of experience in capital raising and investment management, including the last six years at AMP Capital. Previously in her career she spent eight years at First Sentier Investors supporting the European infrastructure team, served at Igneo Infrastructure Partners, focusing on fundraising and investor relations, and held investment management roles at Wachovia (now Wells Fargo) and Ruffer Investment Company. Lee, based in Hong Kong, brings more than 15 years of capital raising and investor relations experience, in addition to established relationships with institutional clients across Asia, developed over his eight years at AMP Capital as well as in earlier roles at Wellington Global Investment Management, UBS Global Asset Management in Hong Kong and UBS Hana Asset Management in Korea.

Hilltop Credit Partners – The pan-European real estate credit investment manager has appointed Claudiu Gheorghita as CIO to continue to build its loan book across the UK and bolster the firm’s expansion into the European market. Gheorghita joins from Nomura’s real estate and securitised products division, where he was spearheading the value-add and opportunistic principal finance business, covering all asset classes within major European countries. Before Nomura, Gheorghita was at Macquarie, responsible for originating and underwriting debt and equity real estate transactions across UK and Mainland Europe.

CBRE Investment Management – Mathias Lejeune and Nicholas Riordan have been appointed senior directors within the firm’s client solutions team to drive capital-raising efforts for infrastructure investment programmes among clients in EMEA and APAC, respectively. Lejeune is based in London, and Riordan is based in Singapore. Lejeune has joined from Ancala Partners, where he was in charge of building relationships with institutional investors globally. Previously, he worked at Pantheon, where he was responsible for capital raising and investor relations in Continental Europe, with a significant focus on infrastructure. Riordan has joined from Surbana Jurong Capital. He previously worked at Hastings Funds Management. In earlier roles, Riordan was also actively involved in managing listed and unlisted property funds within portfolios across APAC and the US. Daniel McDonald has been appointed MD and head of the APAC logistics operator division. In this role, McDonald will manage all aspects of CBRE IM’s logistics and data centre operations in the APAC region, including acquisitions, asset and development management, and leasing. McDonald joins from JP Morgan, where he was most recently head of Australia and New Zealand fund management Asia Pacific Real Estate. McDonald has held a number of senior roles at firms including Goodman, Cushman & Wakefield and CBRE in various Asia Pacific locations.

Patrizia – Andrew Hook has been appointed fund manager to drive continued growth of the firm’s €1bn PanEuropean Property Limited Partnership. Hook joins Patrizia from LaSalle where he managed long-income real estate portfolios for three UK pension funds. Prior to LaSalle, he spent over 14 years at Aviva Investors where he was most recently a senior director responsible for the Aviva European With-Profits Fund. He began his investment career in real estate private equity, working for five years at Curzon Global Partners.

Sequoia Asset Management – Winston Sammut has joined the firm as investment manager. He brings to the role more than four decades of investment experience, including 20 years of specialised listed-property securities. Sammut was formerly head of listed securities with Charter Hall. He established Maxim Asset Management in 2005 before merging the business with Folkstone which was, in turn, taken over by Charter Hall Property in 2018.

KanAm Grund – Brankica Davidovic has joined the KanAm Grund team as associate director/co-head of asset management Germany. In this role, she will be responsible for the asset management of the German assets together with Denis Brune as well as the planned expansion of activities in these areas. Denis Brune has been with the company since 2018 as associate director/co-head of asset and property management Germany. Both report to Natalie Bialas, director head of investment and asset management Germany. Davidovic has more than 20 years of experience in the real estate sector. Most recently, she was VP in commercial asset management and leasing at Corestate Capital. She was also co-founder and managing partner at a fintech startup for commercial peer-to-peer financing. She also worked for Barings Real Estate Advisers as director of real estate leasing. Davidovic worked as head of letting at HIH and as a senior consultant at Knight Frank and at Savills Immobilien Consulting.

Fokus – Michael Rønnelund has been appointed COO for the Danish operations of the Copenhagen-based real estate asset manager Fokus Asset Management, part of Fokus. He is replacing Morten Madsen, who the firm said had been promoted to COO of its Nordic operations at its investment. Having worked at Fokus Asset Management since 2021, Rønnelund has been responsible for streamlining the company’s fund management operations and ESG efforts. Prior to that, he worked for DEAS Asset Management as COO and as its head of asset management. He also previously worked for Aberdeen Standard Investments for nearly eight years. At Fokus Group Investments, Madsen will be responsible for implementing the group’s growth and acquisition strategy in the Nordics. The company also said that at Fokus Group Investments, Emma Movitz had recently been appointed as Nordic chief financial officer and Martin Månsson as Nordic chief marketing officer.

Lincoln Property – David Binswanger and Clay Duvall will serve as co-CEOs, succeeding Lincoln founder and chairman Mack Pogue and CEO and president Bill Duvall, both of whom will continue to have an ownership stake in the company. Greg Courtwright will continue to serve as Lincoln’s COO and remain an owner of the business. Duvall most recently served as executive VP of finance. Binswanger has built and led the expansion of Lincoln’s presence in several US markets, spearheading some of the company’s landmark deals with many of the world’s most prominent technology and entertainment companies.

Altus Power – Sophia Lee has been appointed chief sustainability officer, in addition to her current role as the company’s chief legal officer. In her new role, Lee will ensure that the company’s board and management team prioritise ESG risks and opportunities and integrate them into their strategic decisions. Lee joined Altus Power in May 2021 as chief legal officer.

StepStone – Josie McVitty has joined StepStone’s infrastructure and real assets arm after a two-year stint at New Zealand’s sovereign wealth fund. According to McVitty’s LinkedIn profile, she joined StepStone Infrastructure and Real Assets as principal last month. Prior to joining StepStone, McVitty had been a senior adviser at NZ Super Fund since February 2021. She worked for Actis as strategy and investment manager from January 2018 before joining NZ Super Fund. Her other previous roles include working as deal maker and asset manager for IHS Investment and as an urban development specialist at The World Bank.

Oxford Properties – Daniel Fournier, the former CEO of Ivanhoé Cambridge, has been appointed to replace Michael Turner. Turner joined Oxford Properties, the real estate arm of Canadian pension fund OMERS, in 2010 and will step down as president on 1 April 2023. Fournier was CEO and chairman of Ivanhoé Cambridge, the real estate arm of Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, from 2010 before retiring from the company in 2019. Turner will remain at Oxford Properties to focus on several US-specific strategies and Fournier will replace Turner as executive chair.

Unite Group – Non-executive director Nicky Dulieu has been appointed senior independent director and chair of the remuneration committee. Dulieu has been a member of the remuneration committee since joining the board. Dulieu is currently the remuneration committee chair at Adnams and Redrow, where she is also the senior independent director.

Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner – The international law firm has appointed Doug Lane as partner to its real estate department. Lane will be resident in the firm’s Los Angeles office. Lane represents clients across the entire spectrum of transactional real estate. He advises developers, investors, lenders and property owners in the acquisition, development, leasing and management of retail, office, industrial and mixed-use projects. He joins from the Los Angeles office of Perkins Coie.

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