Supermarket Income REIT, USS, CBRE IM, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, KlaraBo, Vasakronan, SBB, M7 Real Estate, Ancala Partners, Octopus Investments, Bidwells, Berkeley Group, LEM Capital, Credit Suisse, Gurner Group, BlackRock, MaxCap
CBRE Investment Management – Kerron Lezama has been appointed senior director in the private infrastructure team. Reporting to the head of Europe private infrastructure, Andreas Köttering, he will be instrumental in overseeing the team in unlocking global investment opportunities. Lezama joins from Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, where he was managing director in the infrastructure and natural resources team. He also spent over 11 years at Evercore advising on a number of high-profile deals in the infrastructure sector. Based in London, Lezama will be responsible for sourcing and executing direct equity investments, as well as supporting the development of infrastructure investment strategies.
M7 Real Estate – Richard Croft is stepping down from his role as executive chairman. David Ebbrell, CEO and one of the founders of the business with Croft, will take over full responsibility for the management of the company. Ebbrell will be supported by the remaining six members of the M7 leadership team, which includes five co-founders. Croft will stay on as a senior adviser to the company and remain on the general partner boards of all the M7 discretionary funds. In addition to his role at M7, he will be starting a new business in due course to focus on specific opportunities outside of the warehouse sector. Croft’s departure comes two years after M7 was acquired by Oxford Properties in January 2021.
KlaraBo – Jonas Rosengren has joined the real estate company as CFO. Rosengren has among other roles been finance director at property company Hemso and worked with borrowing at property company Vasakronan and the National Debt Office (Riksgälden) among others. Rosengren most recently comes from an interim assignment in the finance department at Samhallsbyggnadsbolaget i Norden.
MaxCap – Bruce Wan, former head of APAC real asset at BlackRock, has been appointed to a newly-created position of head of research. Wan will provide economic and commercial real estate market insights and strategic perspectives to investors on a global basis supporting the capital origination and the institutional mandate management team. He reports to Rob Hattersley, group head of capital. Wan brings more than 25 years of experience in economic and investment analysis to MaxCap. Before BlackRock, Wan was an associate director at Macquarie Bank . He had also worked with Queensland Investment Corporation and the Commonwealth Bank.
Ancala Partners – The infrastructure investment manager has appointed John Boag to lead Avincis, the rebranded aerial emergency service businesses acquired from Babcock. Boag, who has been appointed CEO of Avincis, was previously CEO of Cobham Aviation Services Australia. Prior to Cobham, he was the MD of Babcock International’s Australasian Aviation Division. Ancala has also appointed Kim Gillis as the head of the Avincis advisory Board. Gillis was previously chairman of Cobham Aviation Services Australia and former VP and MD of Boeing Defence Australia.
Octopus Investments – Benjamin Davis, current CEO of Octopus Real Estate, will succeed Ruth Handcock as CEO of Octopus Investments. Davis, a 12-year veteran within the Octopus Group, will lead the retail and institutional fund management business, including retail and institutional fundraising and the investment teams, which includes Octopus Ventures, Octopus Real Estate, sustainable infrastructure and the listed smaller companies team. Davis joined Octopus in 2010 and has held several roles across the business, including investment manager for Octopus Investments across multiple retail investments products, fund manager for the Octopus Apollo Venture Capital Trust and CEO for Octopus Healthcare. For the past four years, he has been CEO of Octopus Real Estate. Before joining Octopus, Davis worked in the venture capital, consulting and technology industries in London and New Zealand, his native country.
Bidwells – The Oxford-Cambridge Arc property consultant has appointed Kelly Bream as its COO. Bream will oversee the operations of Bidwells’s nine UK offices and lead the delivery of the property consultancy’s five-year growth plan and a set of ESG goals. She spent nine years as operations director at the Berkeley Group. Bream also co-founded VervLife, a specialist build-to-rent and co-living consultant and operator and Navana Property.
USS – Graham Burnett is to retire from the Universities Superannuation Scheme after overseeing its £5bn property portfolio since 2006. Burnett, who has worked for USS Investment Management for more than 20 years, will be replaced by Alex Turner, the deputy head of property since 2012. Turner also served as offices fund manager between 2009 and 2020, and recently helped implement USSIM’s long-income property strategy. He previously worked at Hermes Investment Management (now Federated Hermes) and Royal London Asset Management.
Gurner Group – The Melbourne-based company has appointed Rahul Bharara as its first chief investment officer. Bharara joins Gurner following a nine-plus year career at Credit Suisse where he was managing director and head of Australian real estate coverage. Nick McKechnie was recently appointed as the group’s CFO. He was the former CFO at Southern Cross Auster .
LEM Capital – The real estate private equity firm has promoted Steven DiLemme to chief accounting officer. DiLemme, who has been with the firm for 10 years, led the accounting team. Stephen Wetherill, a member of the acquisitions team who covers the Atlanta, Boston, Austin, San Antonio and several Midwest multifamily markets, has been promoted to director. Brian Cohn, a member of the asset management team who helps oversee the Firm’s portfolio, has been promoted to vice-president.
Supermarket Income REIT – The UK real estate investment trust has appointed Sapna Shah as an independent non-executive director. Shah has 20 years of investment banking experience advising UK companies, including listed REITs and investment companies, on IPOs, equity capital market transactions and mergers and acquisitions. She was appointed as a non-executive director of The Association of Investment Companies in January 2021 and is a member of the AIC remuneration committee. Shah is a senior adviser at Panmure Gordon and prior to this held senior investment banking roles at UBS AG, Oriel Securities (now Stifel Nicolaus Europe) and Cenkos Securities. She has previously served on the advisory committee for a private solar energy company.
