People moves: Orchard Street appoints Bales retail asset manager

BMO REP, Cromwell Property, Europa Capital, Orchard Street, Cube Real Estate, Intermediate Capital, Trinity Real Estate Investments, Thor Equities, Otto Group, Castleforge Partners, BNP Paribas, Caerus Debt Investments, RiverRock European Real Estate Fund, Mitheridge Capital, Royds Withy King, Generali Global Infrastructure, DWS, Leumi UK, Deutsche Finance International, Ares Management, M&G Investments

Orchard Street Investment Management – The specialist commercial property investment manager has appointed Edward Bales as retail asset manager. In his new role, Bales will form part of the team responsible for managing Orchard Street’s £1.1bn retail portfolio, mainly comprising of retail parks and warehouses, helping to implement business plans, manage tenants and drive income performance. He joins the business from Cube Real Estate, where he worked as an investment and asset manager responsible for managing £100m of assets across a number of retail subsectors.

BMO Real Estate Partners – Joanna Tano has been appointed head of research. Tano will be based in London. She will work across BMO REP’s European footprint with the teams in the UK, Germany and France to enhance existing and develop new products, as well as the overall positioning of the company with clients. She joins BMO REP from Cromwell Property, where she was the head of research. Prior to this, Tano was at Cushman & Wakefield for 17 years and held several positions, including partner, head of operations, EMEA Research. Tano’s appointment follows the departure of Sue Bjorkegren who is retiring after 22 years at the company.

Europa Capital – The pan-European real estate investment manager has promoted James Farmer to partner, in addition to three further promotions across origination and acquisitions and investor relations. Farmer joined the business as an associate in 2010 from the Royal Bank of Scotland and during that time has assumed responsibility for acquisitions in Germany, Austria and Central Europe. He has also been instrumental in assisting fund manager, Andy Watson, on the growth of the Europa Diversified Income Fund. Will Hughes and Hugo Adams have both been promoted to director. Hughes has been with Europa Capital for six years focusing on origination and acquisitions across Europe, whilst Adams joined the business approximately four years ago and works on acquisitions in the UK, Ireland and the Nordics. Yuko Burrows has also been promoted to associate director having joined the business’s investor relations and client servicing team in 2013.

Deutsche Finance International – Michael Attfield has been appointed head of tax. In this newly created role within the finance team, Attfield will lead the firm’s tax function across the firm, its funds and its investments, from structuring and due diligence through to reporting and compliance. He joins the company following more than three years at Ares Management. As real estate tax vice president, he oversaw tax structuring and due diligence for numerous real estate transactions in Europe, structuring of new funds and related discussions with investors, as well as ongoing tax compliance. He recently worked on the tax structuring, including initial investor discussions, of a European real estate value-add fundraise, as well as managing the tax structuring and due diligence for the acquisition of several UK student housing portfolios. Prior to this, he spent three years at Deloitte as associate director within the real estate M&A Tax department. Attfield began his career at KPMG in various tax roles. Deutsche Finance International has also hired Oliver Tipping as a finance analyst who will start in May.

M&G Investments – Duncan Batty and Dan Riches have been appointed real estate debt co-heads to take over from John Barakat. Barakat, who founded M&G’s real estate finance strategy in 2009, will be leaving the company. Batty has 15 years of real estate experience. He joined M&G in 2011 and has been involved in the establishment and management of funds and segregated accounts. Prior to joining M&G, he was a solicitor practising in the real estate finance industry. Riches has over 20 years of real estate and finance experience, having joined M&G in 2010 to focus on the origination and execution of investments. He was previously in the European CMBS group at S&P and prior to that worked at RBS where he originated and structured real estate finance transactions. 

Trinity Real Estate Investments – Marc Rucinski and Casey Wilson have joined the firm as managing director and vice president, respectively, of product development and investor relations. Rucinski and Wilson join Trinity from Citi Private Bank where they worked as members of Citi’s global investment management team over the past decade to source and structure private investment opportunities on behalf of ultra-high-net-worth and family office investors around the world. Rucinski and Wilson most recently served as Asia Pacific head of private equity and real estate and senior vice president, respectively. At Trinity, they will use their knowledge, experience and vast network of relationships to broaden the firm’s product offerings and launch new investment strategies over time.

Leumi UK – The London-based subsidiary of Israel’s international bank has appointed Peter Clayton as the bank’s new head of property finance to expand Leumi UK’s real estate lending activities. Reporting directly to Chief Business Officer Andy Mallin, Clayton brings over fifteen years of experience within property finance to Leumi UK and joins from Lloyds Bank where he held the role of relationship director within the real estate and housing team.

Caerus Debt Investments – Thomas Ertl has been appointed as co-CIO and member of the Caerus Investment Committee. Before joining Caerus, he was managing director and CIO of the London-based RiverRock European Real Estate Fund. His prior positions include ten years in various roles at Münchner Hypothekenbank eG where, among other things, he facilitated the commercial real estate direct financing business. Ertl was subsequently director real estate finance Germany at Lehman Brothers and then, as Executive Director, he led the real estate finance Germany team at Morgan Stanley Bank.

Intermediate Capital – Alexandra Lazarski and Rachael Pittaway have joined the company’s real estate team as associate directors reporting to Chris Nichols under the sale and leaseback strategy, while Jaynika Amin has joined the residential development team as an associate reporting to Jai Patel head of residential development. Lazarski has eight years’ experience working in European real estate markets and was previously a director of European acquisitions at Thor Equities. Prior to this, Lazarski was a financial analyst for CBRE Capital Advisors. Pittaway joins ICG Real Estate from Castleforge Partners in London, where she was a director of real estate investment management for the firm’s European real estate private equity fund and was responsible for the origination and evaluation of investment and asset management opportunities across the UK and Europe. Prior to this, she was a senior analyst in the real estate capital markets division at CBRE. Amin was previously on the investment banking graduate programme at BNP Paribas in London, where she spent significant time on real estate financing.

Union Investment Real Estate – Georg Niemeyer has been appointed head of data management, reporting and systems. He replaces Lars Scheidecker, who joined the senior management team of Union Investment Real Estate Digital, a Union Investment technology spin-off, on 1 September 2020. Niemeyer is joining Union Investment from the Otto Group, where he spent nine years in a range of roles, most recently as head of data management and technology. Prior to his time at the Otto Group, Niemeyer worked for various companies in IT and process consulting with a focus on business intelligence as well as finance and performance management.

Generali Global Infrastructure – The infrastructure asset manager has appointed Jonathan Aiach as investor relations director. Aiach’s arrival is part of the company’s accelerated growth, and in particular the expansion of its investment solutions and its European institutional investor base. Aiach started his career in 2008 at Cheyne Capital in London as a hedge fund analyst, then joined BNP Paribas in 2009 in derivatives structuring. From 2013 to 2018, he contributed to the development of Blackrock’s alternative investment strategies in London and Geneva, with a particular focus on hedge funds and real assets. He previously worked for the private equity fund Oakley Capital in origination and business development roles. In 2018, Aiach became senior VP at DWS in London, responsible for the development of the infrastructure equity and debt platform.

Mitheridge Capital – The alternative investment firm has appointment Symon Elliott to its advisory group with non-executive responsibility for leadership and development. Elliott is founder of Leaders Futures, a mentoring enterprise that connects leaders to senior executives. Prior to this, Elliott was at Russell Reynolds for 18 years, where he led operations in the US, Europe and South Asia as well as overseeing the CEO and the board services practice.

Royds Withy King – Angela Gregson has joined the law firm’s London office as a partner in the property disputes team. She is a solicitor-advocate with extensive experience in all aspects of commercial and residential property litigation work.