Tishman Speyer, TR Property Investment Trust, St Modwen Logistics, Gresham House, AEW, UK Commercial Property REIT, atNorth, Allsop, Long Harbour, Panattoni, Tritax, ARA Dunedin, Morrison & Co, Brookfield
Morrison & Co – Melissa Richards has joined the global infrastructure investment firm as a partner and head of strategy, product and growth. Based in New York, Richards will oversee Morrison & Co’s global strategy as the firm continues to expand its footprint for the benefit of its global institutional investor clients. Richards has over 15 years of private markets experience, working across infrastructure, real estate, private equity and credit on behalf of both institutional and private wealth clients. She was most recently SVP and head of product strategy and client solutions at Brookfield Oaktree Wealth Solutions in New York. Prior to that she was Brookfield’s head of infrastructure project management. Prior to her tenure at Brookfield Asset Management, she served as executive director and infrastructure fund portfolio specialist at Morgan Stanley. Earlier in her career, she served as VP of corporate foreign exchange sales at BNP Paribas.
Tishman Speyer – Adrian Lee will join the firm’s recently-established Singapore office as senior director of acquisitions. In his new role, Lee will source and execute new investment opportunities across a wide range of asset classes in Asia Pacific, including the office, retail, industrial, life sciences and multi-family sectors. Lee most recently served as director, head of investments and asset management at AEW in Asia, Prior to AEW, Lee had served as head of real estate investments at Homax, and director and portfolio manager at UBS Asset Management. He also held leading investment positions at PGIM Real Estate and Union Investment. Lee will report to managing director, Graham Mackie, who was appointed in June 2022 to spearhead Tishman Speyer’s Asia Pacific expansion beyond its operations in China and India.
TR Property Investment Trust – Senior independent director Kate Bolsover will succeed David Watson who is retiring as chairman following TR Property’s annual general meeting in July this year. Tim Gillbanks will become the senior independent director. Bolsover joined TR Property’s board in 2019. Her executive career was at Cazenove and JP Morgan Cazenove where she was managing director of the mutual fund business, and latterly director of corporate communications. She is currently chairman of Fidelity Asian Values Trust and a director at Bellevue Healthcare Trust. She is also a non-executive director of Baille Gifford & Co. Busola Sodeinde has been appointed to the board as an independent non-executive director. Sodeinde is a non-executive director of Hargreave Hale AIM VCT and at Ombudsman Services; she is also a board member of the Church Commissioners for England and a trustee of The Scouts Association. Until 2019 she was managing director/CFO at State Street Global Markets EMEA, prior to which she was a director in corporate finance at Deutsche Bank Capital Markets. More recently she has founded two digital content platforms: Bearings Point Media, a digital publishing firm, and DySH, a knowledge and social platform.
Gresham House – Mike Adams and Burak Varisli have joined the business as managing director of real estate, and investment director of housing, respectively. Adams and Varisli, working alongside the existing team, will seek to further diversify and strengthen the investment capability in this area with a particular focus on retirement living, shared ownership and affordable build-to-rent. Adams brings more than 30 years’ investment experience in real estate investment. In 2005, he co-founded specialist asset manager MedicX. Adams also served as CEO of Octopus Healthcare before assuming the role of chairman in 2018. Varisli oversaw Assettrust Housing Limited’s corporate finance activities in the mid-2000s. Varisli spent more than eight years in advisory roles at JLL and Avison Young, holding director-level positions.
Long Harbour – The specialist real estate investment, development, and management firm has appointed Jack Spearman to lead its single-family housing platform, which will target investing in residential assets across the UK. Spearman joined Long Harbour in 2009 and is a partner at the firm, having led the origination and execution team for the UK secured income programme.
St Modwen Logistics – The UK logistics manager has appointed Gordon Kellie to the newly created role of head of portfolio. Kellie, who has over 30 years’ experience in the real estate sector, will join in June from ARA Dunedin, the UK arm of APAC real estate fund manager ESR group, where he spent twenty years. Kellie will lead the asset and property management teams and work closely with Polly Troughton, managing director.
Panattoni – The logistics real estate developer has appointed Scott Meakin as a development surveyor to work on projects across the north of England. Meakin has joined from Tritax Symmetry, the logistics development arm of Tritax Big Box REIT. Based in the Manchester office with a focus on the North West and Yorkshire, he will be supporting the growth of developments and strengthening the ongoing speculative programme. Meakin previously worked for more than three years as a surveyor at Avison Young.
UK Commercial Property REIT – Peter Pereira Gray has been appointed non-executive director to succeed Ken McCullagh. McCullagh, who has served on the board for over ten years, and as chair for three years, intend to retire as a director later this year. Gray will be put forward for election to the board at the company’s AGM on 21 June 2023 and will take over as chair later this year. Gray served Wellcome Trust’s Investments team from February 2001, initially as head of property investment and latterly as co-lead of the investment division in the role of managing partner and CEO from September 2017 to his recent retirement from executive duties in September 2022. Previously Gray was a director of property fund management with Prudential Portfolio Managers, and before that, an adviser with Drivers Jonas, Chartered Surveyors. He is chair of Urban&Civic, and of Premier Marinas Holdings. He is a fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and the Royal Society of Arts and was the independent lead for the RICS Review of Investment Property Valuations published in January 2022.
atNorth – The data services company has appointed Wayne Allen as US sales director. Allen has over 30 years of experience in the data centre, colocation and technology industry at several organisations in the US. He was part of the founding team at Digital Realty Trust.
Allsop – The UK property consultant has announced 19 promotions including four new partners, with Michael Linane, Liam Dowdell and Damian Keeling appointed as equity partners and Richard Gale promoted to salaried partner. Linane, who started his career with Allsop 23 years ago in the residential auction team and later transitioned into residential transactional and living markets, specialises in residential investment and development, including working in the affordable and social impact sub-sectors and handling deals involving large residential portfolios. Dowdell, who joined Allsop in 2021 following 17 years with Savills’ residential valuation team, has extensive residential development and investment expertise, including alternative investment markets. Keeling has also been with Allsop since 2021, having joined the residential valuation team after 14 years with Savills. Gale joined Allsop in January 2021 to bolster the team’s expertise in industrial capital markets, working closely with clients including Mileway, Logicor and M7. Vicky Bingham, Ciaran McGivney, Oliver Murley, Tom Nicoll, Archie Stead, and Sam Verity have been named senior associates. Antonia Beech, Olivia Bentley, Will Greasley, Charlotte Hawthorne, Evie Higgs, and Becky Swinburn have been appointed associates, and Siobhan Badman, Freddie Foley and Josh Ware have been appointed senior surveyors as part of 2023 promotions.
