People moves: Octopus Investments appoints McLachlan senior investment director

Hines, Grosvenor Asia, Octopus Investments, Aviva Investors, Bidwells, GSC Grays, Enso Energy, Bouwinvest, Savills, Cbus, ISPT, Redevco, Castleforge, Charter Hall, CBRE, Qualitas

Octopus Investments – Sean McLachlan has been appointed senior investment director to the investment manager’s sustainable infrastructure team. McLachlan joins from Aviva Investors, where he was senior director for over seven years, with roles including fund manager across the infrastructure equity investment mandates. Previous roles also included over 10 years as investment director at Balfour Beatty Investments, where he led investments across a breadth of infrastructure sectors including energy and renewables, utilities, transport and digital telecommunications. Reporting to Robert Skinner, head of sustainable infrastructure, McLachlan will be co-head of the Octopus Sustainable Infrastructure Fund alongside Lukasz Michalak.

Bouwinvest – Jordy Kleemans and Michiel Boonen have been appointed business development managers in the firm’s client management department. In this position, they are responsible for the growth of the entrusted capital for the existing funds under management and for new products. Kleemans joins Bouwinvest from Savills, where he was head of data, intelligence and strategy. Kleemans previously gained experience at Annexum and Troostwijk. Boonen previously worked at Colliers, where he was director of retail capital markets and head of the EMEA retail practice group. His previous positions include business development lead at JLL and associate director of research at Cushman & Wakefield.

Industry Super Property Trust – William Walker has been appointed CIO and development officer. Walker was most recently general manager of development and head of NSW at Cbus Property. Matthew Brown has joined as group executive, head of funds management. Brown is responsible for driving product innovation and delivering returns to investors. He joins from Charter Hall where he was head of office investment management and fund manager for the Charter Hall Prime Office Fund. Prior to that he was with GIC and had stints with Stockland property group and ING Real Estate. Amanda Steele is now group executive, head of property. She was previously executive managing director at CBRE where she also acted as its head of sustainability. She has also held sustainability-focused roles with other organisations, including Stockland. Stephen Peters takes on the newly created role of chief sustainability officer. Peters was promoted from his previous role as ISPT general manager, ESG.

Hines – Tim Jowett has been appointed managing director, head of Asia research. In this new role, will support business and investment opportunities across the region and for the firm’s Asia-focused funds. Jowett will construct the Hines outlook for commercial real estate market fundamentals and pricing. He will be based in Hong Kong, reporting to Josh Scoville, global head of research. Prior to joining Hines, Jowett was at Grosvenor Asia where he was managing director and head of Greater China for several years following his role as director of investment strategy and analysis. Previously, Jowett led or served on research teams alongside investment teams at Heitman, Moonbridge Capital, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and JP Morgan Asset Management. 

Redevco – Benoît van Haare Heijmeijer has been appointed transaction manager France. Van Haare Heijmeijer will maintain the same role in the Belgian and Luxembourg markets, which he has held for the past six years. Van Haare Heijmeijer started at Redevco as development manager Belux in 2017 and was involved in transactions from inner-city retail high streets to out-of-town shopping centres, as well as working on the company’s first leisure real estate concept in Belgium. Prior to that he had experience in food retail and e-commerce at Lidl Belgium & Luxembourg.

Qualitas – Ian Woods has joined the Australian alternative real estate investment manager’s ESG advisory group as an independent member. Woods is a founding member and deputy chair of the Investor Group on Climate Change. Woods is also a member of Chronos’s expert sustainability network and the principal and founder of Ian Woods Advisors.

Castleforge – Neil Smith has been appointed chief financial officer. Smith will be responsible for the operational and financial management of the firm, including developing successful commercial, operational and financial initiatives. Smith joins from Invest and Fund Limited, where he was responsible for business operations and fundraising from institutional lenders. Smith held senior finance and operational positions at both The Carlyle Group and Bridgepoint. At Bridgepoint, Smith was head of fund finance and operations. Prior to this, Smith was an associate vice president within the European funds team at The Carlyle Group.

Bidwells – The UK property consultant has strengthened its energy and renewables team with the hiring of Chris Thyer and Susannah Hibbard as partners. Thyer joins from rural land and property consultancy GSC Grays, where he led the energy team and accrued over a decade’s experience in the clean energy industry. Hibbard joins from Enso Energy, where she was a senior land manager developing a large portfolio of solar and battery storage projects. Prior to that, Hibbard spent over 10 years working in the utilities and infrastructure sector, including working for Cadent Gas.