People moves: Hines names Epping global ESG head

Principal Real Estate Investors, Aon Hewitt, Conray, Hines, UBS-AM REPM, CBRE GI, Avelios, Talanx Immobilien, Columbia Threadneedle, ASI, Cushman & Wakefield, JLL, Colliers, SREF, Ringley, Crabtree Property Management, Greystone, Sentinel Real Estate, Torchlight Investors

Hines – The real estate investment firm has appointed senior managing director Peter Epping as global head of ESG. For the past eight years, Epping served as fund manager for the Hines European core fund. In addition to Epping, the firm established a dedicated new global ESG team to lead its focus on furthering ESG commitments across Hines’ investments, properties, communities and stakeholders. A new Hines ESG leadership council also includes global head of management services Adil Noorani; chief people officer Steph Biernbaum; chief legal officer Richard Heaton and global sustainability officer Clayton Ulrich. Simone Pozzato will succeed Epping as the Hines European core fund’s manager, a progression from his current role as deputy fund manager.

CBRE – Andrew Saunderson has been appointed executive director and head of UK residential capital markets. Saunderson will join CBRE from Grainger where he is currently investment director, a member of the Grainger executive committee and the group’s representative on the BPF Residential Committee. On joining CBRE, Saunderson will take on the management responsibility for the residential capital markets team from Peter Burns who will assume a new role as transactional lead dedicated to securing key transactional opportunities for clients across CBRE’s wider residential business including residential capital markets, land, lettings and new homes.

UBS-AM REPM – Tiffany Gherlone has been appointed head of asset management real estate in US, where she will be responsible for driving the development and communication of the operating strategy for the full portfolio of properties across the Americas. Gherlone will lead the firm’s collaborative efforts across the broader investment team contributing to the US real estate business’s overall results with a clear focus on our clients. Gherlone joined UBS in 2007. Prior to accepting her new position, she led research and strategy for real estate US. She chaired the strategy team and was a member of the investment committee in the US.

Principal Real Estate Investors – Diane Smola has been appointed managing director of defined contribution real estate solutions. Smola will be responsible for the development, implementation and advancement of real estate investment solutions for the defined contribution retirement market. Prior to joining Principal, Smola led consulting relationships with advisory and delegated corporate, public and higher education defined contribution plans at Aon Hewitt.

Sentinel Real Estate – Scott Barsky has joined the firm as a first vice president. In this role, he will work with managing director Scott Arden to lead the firm’s North American capital-raising and investor relations activities. Prior to joining Sentinel, Barsky spent nearly 10 years at Torchlight Investors, a US real estate debt investment manager, where he was a vice president on the investor relations team. He began his career at Bank of America, where he worked in risk management.

CBRE Global Investors – Christina Forrest will become head of EMEA direct logistics strategies and fund manager for the CBRE European industrial fund and CBRE logistics venture, and Laurie Lagarde will become head of EMEA logistics operator division and will lead the sector-specialised team in the execution and operation of CBRE Global Investors’ EMEA direct logistics investments. The duo will take up their posts in October. Forrest is a 16-year real estate investment industry veteran and most recently served as fund manager for CBRE GI’s logistics-focused European value-add fund series, for which she will maintain oversight responsibility. Lagarde has over 20 years’ experience in the logistics industry, including five years with the firm leading logistics investment strategies and 10 years with a leading logistics firm, where she headed up European logistics transactions. Mary Lang joined the company in the US as head of Americas direct logistics strategies. She recently joined the firm from a leading logistics firm, bringing more than 20 years of real estate experience. In APAC, Adrian Baker and his team of logistics-sector specialists complete the global logistics sector leadership team. 

M&G Real Estate – The manager has appointed Jan Low head of acquisitions in Asia and Jody Neale as associate director of acquisitions in Japan. Low, be based in Singapore, will be responsible for leading the firm’s real estate acquisition activities, including sourcing and execution of core and value-add transactions across key markets in Asia Pacific. Low was most recently the head of principal finance in Asia at Macquarie Bank. Prior to that, he had ventured out as an entrepreneur and was running his own real estate investment management company. He has also held senior positions at Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing, executing and closing on numerous principal transactions across Asia Pacific. Neale’s new role will focus primarily on investment opportunities and activities in Japan, including leading the sourcing and execution of both on and off-market transactions. Neale was a partner at Conray for a year. Prior to that, he held senior positions at Goldman Sachs, AMP KK, Deutsche Bank and Secured Capital Japan where he focused on real estate, distressed loan portfolios, renewable energy and secured lending across various investment platforms in Japan.

Columbia Threadneedle Investments – The asset manager has appointed Tom Elviss as a fund manager within its real estate team. Elviss joined in May and will be a dedicated manager for a £630m fund for a large institutional client. He joins Columbia Threadneedle from Aberdeen Standard Investments where he was deputy fund manager of a FTSE250 listed REIT. Previous to this role, Elviss held positions in DTZ and JLL.

The Urban Land Institute – Emanuela Recchi, president of Recchi Engineering, as chair of ULI Italy. She succeeds Davide Albertini Petroni, managing director, Risanamento, and will officially begin her voluntary two-year term on 1 July. Recchi is an architect and the president of Recchi Engineering, an engineering management firm owned by Recchi Ingegneria & Partecipazioni. Early in her career, she was project manager for the realisation of the World Trade Center (San Benigno Executive Headquarters – Genoa) before becoming project manager for Recchi  Costruzioni Generali. In 1989, she was appointed to the board of directors and the technical committee of Recchi. Costruzioni Generali, tasked with the developing of the real estate sector. Since then, she became vice president of Recchi Ingegneria & Partecipazioni in 1999, and then president of Recchi Engineering in 2009. 

Avelios – The alternative investment specialist has expanded its operations into Germany and appointed Thomas Fiebig as MD of Avelios Germany. Fiebig was formerly an MD of Talanx Immobilien, where he established a new business line that delivered mezzanine finance to developers and was responsible for the global real estate and infrastructure investment business. He has also held senior roles at ING Real Estate, Union Investment Real Estate and a BaFin-regulated capital management company based in Hamburg.

Cushman & Wakefield – The real estate services firm has expanded its UK offices team with a double appointment in its South West and South Wales regional hub in Bristol. Steve Lane has been appointed to lead its Bristol Offices team. Lane will join as a partner from JLL where he has spent more than 10 years specialising in tenant representation and disposal work across the South West, providing leasing, development and consultancy advice to investors, developers, occupiers and landowners. Lane, a member of the Bristol Property Agents Association and the South West & Wales Office Agency Society. Alfie Passingham is also joining as an associate. He joins from Colliers where he has provided strategic agency advice on the city centre and out of town office markets in Bristol for the past seven years.

Rockwell – The London-based mixed-use developer has promoted Nicholas Mee to UK managing director UK. Previously Board Director and head of land, Mee has 15 years’ experience spanning acquisitions, investment, construction and marketing across both residential and commercial sectors. Prior to joining Rockwell, Mee held roles within the property team at Lidl UK overseeing estate management, site acquisition, planning and construction; he then joined real estate developer, R55, before an opportunity arose to join the Rockwell team in 2018. He has played a pivotal role in the acquisition of Rockwell’s landmark developments, with responsibility for identifying, appraising and negotiating mixed-use development and investment opportunities.

Schroder UK Real Estate Fund – Edward Atkin has been appointed to the investment management team. Atkin joins from CBRE where he held the role of senior surveyor. At SREF, Atkin will be responsible for helping manage the fund’s industrial portfolio and will work alongside Phil Scott who joined the team last March as an Investment Manager for SREF’s industrial assets.

Ringley – The residential property consultancy has appointed Kate Robinson as its new relationship director to help drive the growth of its block management business. Based in Ringley’s London headquarters, Robinson will be responsible for dealing with existing clients on block management. She will play a leading role in overseeing the implementation of Ringley’s new leaseholder engagement programme, as well as rolling out new technological solutions designed to improve transparency and drive resident satisfaction. Robinson, who has over 17 years’ property management experience, joins Ringley from Crabtree Property Management, where she was associate director of operations for over two years. Prior to her time at Crabtree, Robinson was director of residential property at Battersea Power Station. She has also had roles at HMLHawksworth and James Andrew RSW, where she started her career. 

Greystone – The US commercial real estate finance company has appointed Eliav Dan to its commercial team as a senior managing director, based in Los Angeles. In this role, Dan will focus on structured large loan originations, CMBS, balance sheet lending, and Greystone Agency and FHA programmes. Dan joins Greystone from Barclays, where he served as West Coast head. Prior to Barclays, Dan was head of the Los Angeles office at Ladder Capital, and also served as founder and managing principal of Verona Capital Markets. Before forming Verona, Dan was one of two co-founding members who established Morgan Stanley’s West Coast CMBS lending operation in the early 2000s and helped to establish and grow the bank’s presence in the Western US. At Greystone, Dan will be principally focused on covering both institutional and middle-market borrowers.