BNP Paribas Real Estate, ORIX Corporation USA, AEW Capital Management, Aecom, Commerz Real, Hines, BioMed Realty, JLL, Grain Management, Goodwin, CBRE, Bayview Asset Management
Commerz Real — Barkha Mehmedagic the global head of institutional sales and group treasury will leave the company at the end of the year to take up a fresh professional challenge. Her tasks will initially be assumed on a provisional basis by Nicole Arnold, a member of the board of management. Mehmedagic came to Commerz Real in 2006 and played a substantial role in the development of the asset financing and group treasury division, which she then also headed from 2013 onwards. In 2019 Mehmedagic assumed the management of Commerz Real Capital Management Company, which is responsible within Commerz Real for the issuance, marketing and management of alternative investment funds pursuant to the regulations of the German Investment Code, and in particular for institutional investors. Since 2021 she has also been responsible in her current function for the further development of the institutional business of Commerz Real.
BioMed Realty – John Lee has joined the company as EVP and COO. In this newly created role, Lee oversees the company’s investment and asset management functions. Lee most recently served as EVP, portfolio manager at PIMCO, where he served as the global head of asset management across PIMCO’s opportunistic real estate private equity and private debt businesses. Prior to joining PIMCO in 2013, Lee was an executive for several years within the private real estate group at Canyon Partners, after holding investment positions with O’Connor Capital Partners, Trammell Crow Company, and Bain and Company.
BNP Paribas Real Estate – Peter Flanagan has been appointed managing director in Ireland. Already head of the capital markets, he adds to his scope the position of managing director which he has taken up since July. Prior to his appointment at BNP Paribas Real Estate, Peter held the position of director in the Knight Frank Capital Markets team. Previous to that, he worked at BNP Paribas Real Estate for over 10 years across retail, industrial/logistics and capital markets business lines. Flanagan has over 25 years of experience in the Dublin property market. He is a member of both the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in the UK.
Nuveen Real Estate — Batih Van Leer and Stefano Rubini as managing directors and co-heads of its strategic transactions team in Europe. They will also oversee Nuveen’s European value add series, including capital raising and deployment for an upcoming second strategy, working with fund manager David Pearce. Van Leer and Rubini will join Nuveen Real Estate’s senior leadership team, which oversees the management of the European real estate team’s overall business. They will both be based in the firm’s European head office in London from January. Van Leer joins Nuveen after nearly a decade at Ares. Prior to this, he held roles at CBRE Investment Management focused on real estate acquisitions and asset management, and with Savills in the Netherlands. Rubini joins after he spent the last three years at Ares, and prior to this spent six years at Partners Group in Switzerland and the UK. Rubini began his career in investment banking and project finance at UniCredit in Italy.
Madison International Realty – The real estate private equity firm has appointed Michael Siefert and Evan Abrams as co-heads of global equity capital markets. Siefert, based in Frankfurt, and Abrams, based in New York, will lead the equity capital markets and investor relations team spread globally across seven offices, overseeing Madison’s collaboration efforts. Siefert has accumulated extensive experience over his 22-year tenure in various positions at Madison, where he was most recently the head of Germany and a member of Madison’s executive management team. Siefert is a fixture of the real estate communities in Europe and the Middle East, where he has been spearheading Madison’s business development and fundraising initiatives within the regions. Abrams, previously MD of strategic investor solutions for Madison, has been leading fundraising efforts in the US. Abrams has 18 years of experience in capital raising, most recently serving as a director at Lazard, where he co-led the US Real Estate & Real Assets Advisory business within the firm’s private capital advisory group. He has held key fundraising positions at Hunt Companies, Hodes Weill & Associates and Credit Suisse.
ORIX Corporation USA – Dean Dulchinos has been appointed MD and head of real estate credit. As head of real estate credit, Dulchinos will be responsible for expanding ORIX USA’s third party CRE credit asset management business. Dulchinos joins ORIX USA from global real estate investment manager AEW Capital Management, where he was head of debt portfolio management. He previously served as head of single-family rental portfolio management at the Amherst Group and worked for a total of 17 years at Barings/MassMutual companies, most recently as head of real estate debt portfolio management and capital markets at arings. He was previously senior portfolio manager for CRE structured debt products at Cornerstone Real Estate Advisors and a founding member of the CRE high yield team at Babson Capital Management, both of which were Barings/MassMutual companies.
Grain Management – Claire Fefer has been appointed senior advisor. Fefer previously served as senior investment manager of private investments at DUMAC. In this role, she led private investments in emerging and established general partners across venture capital, leveraged buyout, credit, natural resources, and real estate for 15 years, and prior to that focused on public securities. Fefer currently advises multi-billion dollar family offices on their investment programs and serves on the editorial committee for the Academy of Institutional Investors.
Aecom— The infrastructure consulting firm has appointed Jill Hudkins as chief executive of its new water and environment advisory global business line. Hudkins previously served as president at Tetra Tech with more than 25 years of experience spanning several operational and strategic leadership roles at the firm.
CBRE – Kaela Fenn-Smith as UK head of client partnerships. In this new strategic role, Fenn-Smith will leverage her broad experience and deep knowledge of clients’ requirements to lead CBRE’s key strategic clients and client partner programme. With over 30 years of experience in real estate, Fenn-Smith has worked in a variety of roles, in both Canada and the UK, including her seven years in executive leadership roles at Landsec. Her broad knowledge of the North American and European markets has most recently been focused on leading CBRE’s ESG consulting business over the last three years, where she was responsible for rapidly growing the UK team to 115 consultants and developing CBRE’s full-service sustainability and ESG offering for clients. Amanda Stevenson, Ed Blackburn and Allan Wickham, all existing members of CBRE’s ESG consulting business, will take over leadership responsibilities.
Hines – The global real estate investor, developer and manager has appointed Jan Hein Tiedema as senior MD and country head for The Netherlands. Tiedema is an experienced real estate executive with a deep knowledge of the Dutch market. Beginning his career at JLL where he worked at the agency team in Amsterdam, he then spent 15 years with real estate developer EDGE. Tiedema succeeds Andy Smith in the role, who will continue to work as senior advisor to the business in the Netherlands.
Argyle Real Estate Partners – The US real estate investment has promoted Mike Cacciatore from principal to partner. Cacciatore joined Argyle Real Estate Partners in February 2023 as principal. Prior to Argyle, Cacciatore served as the director of acquisitions for the US arm of a Switzerland-based real estate investment firm. He launched his career in Raymond James’s real estate investment banking group.
Goodwin – Paul Gray and Lewis Gaut will join the global law firm’s real estate finance practice as partners in the London office. Gray has more than 20 years of experience advising clients on international finance matters in the real estate and sports sectors. At Goodwin, he will assume the leadership of the UK real estate finance practice.
Bayview Asset Management – Andrew Smith has been appointed managing director, head of commercial real estate debt. Smith joined Bayview in July 2024 and is leading Bayview’s investment initiatives related to CRE debt, with a focus on expanding the firm’s capabilities in response to increasing market opportunities. Smith most recently, served as senior MD and head of real estate debt at Kayne Anderson Real Estate, where he joined in 2014 to help launch the CRE credit platform.
