Fusion Group, Henry Boot, Trammell Crow Company, JLL, Swiss Life Asset Managers UK, The RMR Group, Newmark, Lincoln Property, ULI, Harrison Street AM, Goldman Sachs, Suntec Real Estate Investment Trust, Waterton, NexPoint Real Estate Advisors, HIG Capital, BGO, BPF, Avison Young, DigitalBridge, Nuveen
Swiss Life Asset Managers UK – Tim Munn and Eduardo Illitsch will take over as co-CEOs on 1 January 2026. They succeed Giles King, who will retire and hand over the leadership as CEO. Munn, with 27 years of experience in real estate investment management, joined Swiss Life Asset Managers UK in 2020 and has since served as CIO. Prior to this, he spent over two decades at CBRE Investment Management, where he held several senior positions. In his new role, Munn will continue to act as CIO of Swiss Life Asset Managers UK alongside his co-CEO responsibility. Illitsch, with 31 years of international financial industry experience, has been with Swiss Life Asset Managers since 2018 and head of international sales since 2020. Before joining Swiss Life Asset Managers, he held senior roles at JP Morgan Asset Management and Credit Suisse. As co-CEO, he will be responsible for sales, joint ventures, and the further development of the UK business into new growth areas, while continuing in his role as head of international sales at Swiss Life Asset Managers.
Harrison Street Asset Management – Ivo de Wit has been appointed managing director of portfolio management in Europe. Based in London, de Wit will oversee portfolio management for Harrison Street’s European open-ended core real estate strategy. In this role, he will be responsible for research and strategy, analytics, portfolio construction and investment execution. Prior to joining Harrison Street, de Wit served as managing director at Goldman Sachs, where he led the European core-plus real estate strategy and developed the research and analytic capabilities. His experience also includes serving as the fund manager for CBRE’s global alpha fund, executive position at Evolution Global Investors, portfolio manager at ING Real Estate, and head of strategy at Clarion Partners.
DigitalBridge – Wendy Pryce has been appointed managing director. In her new role, Pryce will serve as a real estate specialist and member of the leadership team for the firm’s new stabilised data centre strategies while also overseeing relationships with global real estate investors. Pryce has over two decades of experience in real estate investing, capital raising, and product development. She joins DigitalBridge from Nuveen, where she served as managing director and real estate specialist, leading capital raising efforts across the Americas and driving distribution across core, value-add, and opportunistic strategies. Prior to Nuveen, Pryce spent more than a decade at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, where she raised capital and managed global investor relations for private real estate funds. She also held investment roles executing acquisitions and disposals across real estate strategies. Earlier in her career, she was a manager at KPMG Consulting, and also held roles at Grosvenor and Google during her MBA programme.
BGO – Dyice Ellis-Beckham has been appointed managing director on the firm’s US capital raising team. Based in New York, Ellis-Beckham will be responsible for cultivating new relationships with limited partners and consultants in the U.S. Midwest and Eastern regions. Ellis-Beckham brings to BGO nearly 30 years of asset management experience. Prior to joining the firm, she served as MD at HIG Capital on the capital formation group’s partners advisory team. Other previous positions include MD on Invesco’s institutional sales team, SVP of institutional sales and client ervices at Satellite Asset Management, and Lehman Brothers Asset Management, where she received the chairman’s award for extraordinary client service. She began her career as VP at DWS and as a pension fund manager at General Motors Asset Management.
JLL – Sam Schaefer has been appointed CEO of property management. Schaefer also joins JLL’s real estate management services board and will lead the globalisation of the firm’s property management business. Based in Boston, Schaefer reports into Neil Murray, global CEO of JLL’s real estate management services. In this newly created role, Schaefer oversees the full spectrum of property management services globally. Schaefer joins JLL from Trammell Crow Company, where he served as principal. Prior to Trammell Crow, Schaefer was the president & CEO at Hobbs Brook Real Estate and managing director and global head of leasing, corporate outreach and property management at Tishman Speyer. Luke Billiau has been appointed interim chief executive for Australia and New Zealand as the firm searched for a permanent replacement for Dan Kernaghan, who left in August. Billiau is JLL’s head of capital market for Australasia. He continues in that role. Billiau has more than 17 years experience and worked as a senior leader in JLL’s valuation advisory team.
Waterton – Sean Jacobson has been appointed portfolio management SVP. Jacobson will be responsible for multifamily investment strategies, portfolio construction and diversification strategies within Waterton’s value-add fund platform, including the execution of portfolio business plan strategies and fund/venture compliance. Prior to joining Waterton, Jacobson was director of real estate at NexPoint Real Estate Advisors, where he led acquisition, asset management and disposition initiatives for the multi-family platform. Prior to that, he worked as a senior acquisition/asset manager at Des Moines-based BH Equities.
The British Property Federation – Unite Students CEO Joe Lister has been appointed to chair its newly established purpose-built student accommodation board. Founding members of the board include top executives from the sector, such as Matthew Merrick, CEO at iQ Student Accommodation; Alex Pease, CEO at Watkin Jones; Ashling Fox, managing director at Student Roost; Duncan Garrood, CEO at Empiric Student Property; Elaine Hewitt, CEO at UPP; Nick Porter, CEO at The Dot Group; and Graham Rogers, CEO at Homes for Student.
Fusion Group – Richard Pilkington has been appointed group CEO. He succeeds Nigel Henry, co-founder and CEO, who becomes chairman of the business. Pilkington joins from Modon, the Abu Dhabi-based real estate group, where he has recently served as CEO for its international business, including the establishment of Modon’s presence in the UK, partnering with British Land and GIC in the development of the 2 Finsbury Avenue building at Broadgate, London. Before joining Modon, Pilkington was head of European real estate at Cain International and also held senior leadership roles at Oxford Properties and MGPA.
Henry Boot – Iain MacSween, an executive director at the UK property group’s subsidiary Hallam Land, has been promoted and appointed to the role of managing director, replacing Nick Duckworth at the end of the year, who is leaving Hallam Land after 33-years. MacSween joined the business in 2018 as a regional manager, before being promoted to Hallam Land’s board in 2021 to lead the south eastern region. As MD, MacSween will be responsible for the leadership and development of the business and will play a key role in the continued growth of Hallam Land through the acceleration of planning applications to deliver much-needed homes across the country. MacSween will also join the executive committee of Henry Boot on 1 January 2026.
The RMR Group – Matt Jordan is being promoted to COO. Jordan will continue to focus on RMR’s capital formation and strategic growth initiatives, while also continuing to oversee many of RMR’s shared service functions and operating platforms. Matt Brown is being promoted to EVP and will succeed Jordan as CFO and treasurer, while continuing to oversee the accounting, finance and tax functions. Yael Duffy is being promoted to EVP and will continue overseeing asset management, leasing and property operations for the office, industrial and retail sectors. With their promotion to EVP, Brown and Duffy will join RMR’s management committee.
Newmark – Carla Malone has been appointed VP of property management in Dallas. With more than 20 years of experience representing institutional and private clients, Malone has directed operations for tens of millions of square feet of office, industrial, retail and medical office assets, leading teams of more than 300 property management and engineering professionals. Most recently, she served as managing director at Lincoln Property Company in the Dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex. Her experience in property management is complemented by senior leadership roles at Cushman & Wakefield, where she oversaw 36m sqft of office, industrial, retail and medical office assets across Florida.
The Urban Land Institute – Nicolas Bearelle, executive chairman, Revive, has been appointed chair of the ULI Belgium and Luxembourg national council. Bearelle succeeds Michel van Geyte, CEO, Nextensa, and will serve on a voluntary basis for a one-year term commencing 1 October 2025. Bearelle joined ULI in 2006 and is a long serving and active member of the ULI Belgium and Luxembourg executive committee. In addition, he is a ULI global governing trustee and was co-chair of the ULI Europe affordable living council which focuses on the opportunities and challenges related to the delivery of high quality, sustainable and affordable housing. He is executive chairman and founder of Revive. He is also co-founder of Inclusio and Watt Factory.
Avison Young – Erik Foster, principal and Chris Skibinski, principal and managing director, have been appointed co-leaders of the firm’s US industrial capital markets platform. In their new roles, Foster and Skibinski will drive the continued growth and integration of Avison Young’s industrial and capital markets capabilities across the country. Foster, based in Avison Young’s Chicago office, joined the firm in 2012. He leads national efforts that represent global, institutional REITs and private equity firms, as well as privately held commercial investors in diverse assignments ranging from local/regional opportunities to large, multi-market international portfolios. In addition to the role of co-lead of industrial capital markets, Skibinski will continue to serve as MD of the firm’s Charlotte, NC office which he launched in 2013.
Suntec Real Estate Investment Trust – David Matheson has been appointed chairman. Matheson is the chief investment officer of the privatised ESR Group, of which Suntec REIT is one of its portfolio companies. He replaces Chew Gel Khim who stepped down from the role following her retirement this week. Prior to taking on the ESR role in August, the 45-year was at Starwood Capital Europe Advisors for 3.5 years where he was managing director and co-head of Europe. From 2013 to 2022, he was with Oxford Properties as executive vice-president Europe and Asia Pacific.
Areim – Partners Erika Olsén and Therese Rattik will assume joint leadership as co-managing partners of Areim, ensuring continuity and maintaining the company’s focus on growth and development. Henrik Brinck Landelius will resign as CEO of Areim to pursue his career outside the firm. Olsén and Rattik will, together with the other partners and the management team.
Standard Insurance Company – Amy Frazey was promoted to senior vice president and managing director of StanCorp Mortgage Investors and StanCorp Real Estate. In this role, Frazey is responsible for leading the origination, closing, servicing and operations teams associated with the company’s commercial mortgage portfolio, the management and maintenance of the external distribution platform, investor relationships and of the company’s home office and investment properties. Frazey joined The Standard in 2000 and brings more than two decades of experience in commercial real estate finance. Most recently, as vice president of investment administration, she led servicing, operations and the accounting teams responsible for managing the company’s commercial real estate loan portfolio.
