BioMed Realty, Hines, Investec Real Estate, Savills IM, Infracapital, DigitalBridge, Goodstone Living, Catella, IQ Student, KanAm Grund, Azora, AXA IM Alts, Farallon Capital Management, LINUS Digital Finance, M&G Real Estate, The Howard de Walden Estate, Aviva Investors, Abrdn, Real IS, ICG Real Estate, GIC, La Française, Deepki

M&G Real Estate – Laura Jockers has joined the real estate investment manager as global head of ESG. In her new role, Jockers will work with M&G Real Estate’s global teams to drive the implementation of its ESG strategy, enhance the existing work being done by M&G’s funds on net zero pathways and ensure the business continuously improves its GRESB targets. Jockers joins from The Howard de Walden Estate where as head of sustainability she set ESG strategy for its 92-acre portfolio. Prior to this, she was a sustainability consultant at JLL. She reports to Jose Pellicer, head of investment strategy and research at M&G Real Estate.

Aviva Investors – The global asset manager has appointed David Hedalen as head of real assets research. Based in London, Hedalen will report to Melanie Collett, a managing director in charge of real assets asset management. Hedalen will be responsible for providing strategic research leadership across the full breadth of the firm’s real assets platform ensuring research continues to play a critical role in informing and shaping the firm’s investment decisions and delivery of its commercial strategy. Hedalen joins Aviva Investors with over 15 years’ experience in UK and European real assets research, most recently spending 12 years at Abrdn where he was head of UK and European investment strategy for real estate. He has also held roles at Investment Property Databank and M&G Investments. Hedalen is co-chair of the INREV asset level index and a member of the IPF research steering committee.

Infracapital – M&G’s infrastructure equity investment arm has appointed Latifa Tefridj-Gaillard as head of capital formation and investor relations. Tefridj-Gaillard joins Infracapital from DigitalBridge where she was a managing director and head of European capital formation. She was a member of the ESG committee and a board member of Wildstone. Her prior experience includes an extensive career at Goldman Sachs International where she spent over 16 years in the global markets and investment banking business.

Hines – Marc Sampietro has been appointed to lead pan-European operations at Aparto, the student accommodation platform owned by Hines. Aparto operates 16 student accommodation sites across the UK, Ireland, Italy, and Spain. Sampietro joined Hines two years ago as director of living operations in Italy and Spain. Prior to Hines, he worked at The Student Hotel where he managed hotel operations across Italy, France, and Spain, as well as leading the firm’s Southern European strategy. Prior to this, he was regional operations director for NH Hotel Group in Italy.

Investec Real Estate – Jason Presence and Seb Walley as originators, and Gordon Milnes as syndicator, to lead the firm’s newly formed syndication team, as it targets larger and more sophisticated transactions. Based in London, all three will report directly to the head of real estate, Mark Bladon. Presence and Walley will be responsible for originating senior development and investment facilities, typically in the underserved £60m to £130m range, which Investec will syndicate to its global capital partners seeking access to UK real estate loans. Milnes will be responsible for managing Investec’s current capital partner relationships alongside establishing new ones, leveraging his global distribution experience. Presence joins Investec from NatWest, where he was the regional director. Previous roles include managing national housebuilders at RBS and joint head of global property finance UK at the Bank of Ireland. Walley was previously a relationship director in the NatWest private clients’ real estate team. Milnes joins Investec from Credit Agricole, where he was executive director of debt optimisation and distribution, responsible for structuring and distributing UK syndicated real estate loans. He previously spent 14 years at Lloyds Banking Group, which included building its loan syndication business in Asia.

BioMed Realty – Ankit Patel has been appointed executive vice president and CFO. Patel will lead the company’s financial reporting, accounting, financial planning and analysis, tax, treasury, capital markets, information technology and asset management functions. He will be based in BioMed Realty’s San Diego headquarters. Patel joins BioMed Realty with over 13 years of experience in the healthcare and life science real estate sectors gained from leading the financial and strategic planning functions, capital markets and external reporting at Ventas. Patel most recently served as the senior VP of corporate finance and capital markets, and his previous roles involved investor relations, acquisitions, and contributing to the company’s environmental, social, and governance efforts. Prior to joining Ventas in 2009, Patel began his career in investment banking at UBS and management consulting at IBM. 

Savills Investment Management – Lucy Williams has joined the international real estate investment manager’s UK business development team as head of client capital, UK. Based in London, she will report to Giuseppe Oriani, co-head of EMEA client capital. She joins Savills IM from M&G Real Estate, where she was most recently head of business development and investor relations. She also previously held the role of director of institutional business for UK and Europe at the firm. In her new role, she will oversee client and relationships and capital raising in the UK market, fostering existing relationships and developing new contacts for both Savills IM’s real estate equity and private debt offering. She will also be responsible for global consultant relationships and will report to the HQ in the UK. The firm has also hired Victoria Morrison as RFP and presentations manager. Morrison previously held roles as senior RFP manager of EMEA and deputy head of RFP, APAC at Abdrn.

Goodstone Living – Iliya Blazic has been appointed to the newly created role of chief executive officer. Blazic will join the executive shareholders, Darryl Flay and Martin Bellinger, in delivering on the business strategy of partnering with leading institutional investors to deliver build-to-rent residential real estate across the UK. Blazic will be responsible for day-to-day leadership of the business and report to the board of directors. Blazic brings more than 25 years of real estate investment and funds management experience to the role, having held senior leadership positions at IQ Student, Dominvs Group, Wellcome Trust and LaSalle Investment Management. He recently held the role of CIO at IQ Student.

KanAm Grund – José Aguinaga Fiel has been appointed associate director and head of Southern Europe in the investment and asset management Europe department. He has also assumed the role of head of the Spanish branch of the KanAm Grund Group in Madrid. Fiel will be responsible for the purchase and sale of real estate in southern Europe, being responsible for both the strategic and operational asset management of the Spanish, Portuguese and Italian real estate portfolios. He will report to Anthony Bull-Diamond, director and head of investment and asset management in Europe. Fiel has been working in the real estate industry for almost 10 years. Before joining KanAm Grund, he worked as deputy investment director for residential and healthcare properties at Azora. His previous positions included investment director with a focus on commercial real estate, mainly in Spain and Portugal, at Catella Asset Management, and head of GLL Real Estate Partners in Madrid.

AXA IM Alts – Lu Gao has been appointed as head of client group of Alts Asia. Lu will work closely across all business lines to oversee the client group’s role of raising new capital in Asia, expanding the business’ third-party client base and maintaining AXA IM Alts’ strong long-term relationships with existing clients. Based in Singapore, he will report directly to Florence Dard, the global head of Client Group Alts. With 15 years’ experience in investor relations and institutional sales, Lu has held a number of senior strategic positions during his career, most recently as head of Asia investor relations at Farallon Capital Management, where he worked for more than six years. Prior to this, he held senior positions working with Asian investors at Goldman Sachs, Amundi Asset Management and Sculptor Capital.

Catella Residential Investment Management – Alexander Barotanyi has been appointed head of Austria residential at the firm’s new office in Vienna. Barotanyi has more than 15 years of real estate experience and served most recently as an asset manager at Bank Austria Real Invest Asset Management. Prior to that, he worked for almost nine years in various positions in the asset services and retail departments at real estate advisor CBRE. 

LINUS Digital Finance – David Neuhoff, the chairman of the management board (CEO) of the firm is expected to move to the supervisory board when his appointment as a member of the management board expires on 24 January 2023. Christian Vollmann, who joined the Linus supervisory board in January 2021, will step down from his position as of 24 January 2023, to focus on his own entrepreneurial endeavours. Neuhoff is also expected to take over the chairmanship of the supervisory board in the future. Lucas Boventer and Christopher Danwerth – currently deputy members of the management board – will lead the company as co-CEOs. Both have been appointed by the supervisory board as ordinary members of the management board until the end of the 2025 financial year. Boventer joined Linus back in 2018 and was most recently in charge of the investment business. Danwerth joined LINUS in 2021 having worked previously at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and, as general counsel, was responsible for all legal topics of the company, including the company’s IPO.

Real IS – Florian Kurth has been named head of product development. Kurth has over ten years of experience in the real estate industry. He was at PwC Immobilien- und Wertpapier-Kapitalverwaltungsgesellschaften, where he worked in the regulated investment fund division and advised asset management companies on inbound and outbound structures. Prior to that, he was head of structuring, and was responsible for regulatory, tax and economic structuring of club deals, private placements and individual solutions at Warburg-HIH Invest. Before his nomination as head of product development, he was senior director of investment management at Real IS, with a particular focus on international deals.

ICG Real Estate – Madeleine Cosgrave, the former head of Europe at GIC’s real estate arm, has joined the real estate division of ICG as a senior advisor to provide “strategic investment advice across the platform” and support the team’s growth plan. Cosgrave spent over 20 years at GIC Real Estate, where she most recently served as head of Europe and a member of the global investment committee. Prior to joining the sovereign wealth fund in 1999, Cosgrave spent 10 years at JLL, as an associate director. Cosgrave holds several advisory positions across the real estate industry, serving as an independent consultant to CBRE Investment Management’s EMEA investment committee, and as a non-executive director and audit committee member at LandSec.

La Française – Jonathan Mansie has been appointed pan-European transactions director based in London; James Harmer has been named asset manager, based in London; Adil Mestan appointed investment manager, based in Frankfurt and Vanessa Mayer has been appointed asset manager, based in Frankfurt. Mansie began his career with Jones Lang Wootton/JLL, first in the UK and then in France, before joining Constantine Land in 2004 as acquisitions surveyor and shortly thereafter Dunedin Property/Industrious Asset Management as regional property director. In 2009, he joined London & Regional Properties as senior asset manager. Prior to joining La Française, he was MD, origination and acquisitions for Europa Capital. Harmer started out at GL Hearn, he moved to Knight Frank where he spent two and a half years within the fund valuation department prior to joining the firm’s asset management department. Harmer acted as an asset manager on the Pollen Estate. Mestan was an associate with Goldman Sachs. He will source real estate investment opportunities across Germany and the Netherlands. Mayer has six years of experience in the German real estate market beginning in 2017 with Knight Frank as an investment analyst, gaining extensive experience in transaction consulting. In 2019, she moved to Deutsche Immobilien Opportunitaten and was named investment asset manager. Prior to joining La Française, she was an asset manager for Publity AG. She will be responsible for the management of a German portfolio comprised of office, retail and mixed-use assets.

Barings – Abhishek Srivastava has joined the manager’s real estate team in Sydney as a senior analyst. Srivastava was a senior associate at Commonwealth Bank covering infrastructure and real estate. Prior to this, he also spent nearly four years at Macquarie.

Deepki – Élise Jacques joins as VP of transformation and M&A. Jacques will be responsible for supporting the enhancement and development of the company’s commercial performance and external growth. She began her career in the energy sector and worked for Saipem for five years in West Africa. She then joined JLL where she held the position of director of business development and intelligence. Anastasia Petrova takes on the role of global head of partnerships and will be responsible for developing Deepki’s network of partners with key industry players. Throughout her career, Anastasia has held operational and strategic roles in several large companies, including Nokia Corporation, NatWest Group, Pitney Bowes Software, Skrill and Quantexa. Christophe Temple has been appointed VP experience and Design. Temple’s mission will be to connect different departments within Deepki to improve the user experience through design. Temple started his career in the design and innovation sector and has worked at Altran, before joining frog.

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