Capital & Regional, Custodian REIT, Hines, Intu, Corestate, BNP Paribas REIM, CBRE, Schroder, Blackstone, Brookfield Infrastructure, Hodes Weill

Hodes Weill & Associates – The global real estate advisory firm has appointed Nan Leake as an advisory board member. Leake was previously a partner in the private real estate business unit at Partners Group. She currently serves as an advisory partner with Partners Group. Prior to joining Partners Group in 2007, Leake was a senior consultant at Pension Consulting Alliance. Before this, she worked at Property Investment Advisors, the Virginia Retirement System and NBS Realty Advisors. She currently serves on the investment advisory committee of the Virginia Retirement System and the board of VCU Investment Management Company. She also served on both the board and investment advisory committee of the Richmond Retirement System.

Corestate Capital – The real estate manager is proposing to elect Georg Allendorf to its supervisory board as chairman at the upcoming AGM on 29 April. The former DWS managing director will replace Micha Blattmann who is stepping down from the board as his statutory term expires. In addition, the currently four-member supervisory board of Corestate is to be expanded to include at least one further member. The other candidates, in addition to Allendorf, will be presented to the shareholders at the end of March when the AGM is convened. Allendorf was with DWS for 16 years in various positions, most recently as MD of DWS Real Estate and head of real estate Europe. Before joining DWS, he was responsible for the management of the real estate portfolio of R+V Versicherung for four years. Allendorf is a member of several supervisory boards, including DWS Grundbesitz and DWS Alternatives. He is also an honorary member of the board of INREV.

Capital & RegionalDavid Hunter is joining the convenience and community-focused shopping centre REIT as non-executive chairman, taking over from Hugh Scott-Barrett. Scott-Barrett, who after 12 years of contribution to the company, first in his role as CEO for nine years and most recently as chairman, will not seek re-election as non-executive chairman at the AGM on 20 May. Hunter will initially join the board as a non-executive director from 9 March and will take on the non-executive chairman role following the AGM. Hunter’s experience includes his current roles as chairman at Custodian REIT and as a non-executive director of GCP Student Living as well as other previous board level positions in the UK and overseas. He is a senior adviser to ICG-Longbow.

Hines – The international real estate firm’s UK arm has promoted Jake Walsh and Emme Haycock to managing director and director respectively. Walsh, who has been with the business for ten years, will be responsible for acquisitions, with a particular focus on the office and retail sectors. Haycock, who joined Hines three years ago from Intu, has responsibility for a number of the firm’s retail properties.

BNP Paribas REIM – The company has appointed Sigrid Duhamel global CIO, in addition to her current position as country CEO for France. Claus Thomas will take up a new role overseeing separate account activities and the UK market, including his responsibility as country CEO for Germany. The investment management arm of BNP Paribas Real Estate said, Jean-Maxime Jouis, head of fund management for France, will also expand his purview, becoming global head of fund management and Xavier Mouette has been appointed European senior transaction manager and will be in charge of business growth, especially for Spain and Benelux.

CBRE – The commercial real estate services and investment firm has appointed Graeme Rutter from Schroder Real Estate Investment Management to lead its investment advisory business. Rutter has been named executive director to succeed Tony Martin, who will take on a new position as chairman of CBRE’s investment advisory team. Rutter was head of the real estate capital partners division at Schroder. Prior to Schroder, where he has been for the last 13 years, he was at Aviva and Savills. He also holds a number of non-executive roles, including chairman of Investment Property Forum, former chair of the Association of Real Estate Funds investor committee and a former AREF management committee member, chair of the IPF indirect property funds group and a member of MSCI Index consultative group.

Blackstone – The investment manager’s infrastructure fund has hired Jonathan Kelly from Brookfield Infrastructure to lead and put together a European team and to source investment opportunities across the region. Blackstone Infrastructure Partners said the former managing partner and head of Europe for Brookfield will join its London office on 6 April as a senior managing director and head of European infrastructure. At Brookfield, Kelly was the global CIO for utilities and data infrastructure. Earlier in his career, he also worked at CIBC World Markets in its power and utilities group.