People moves: Piekarski joins AXA IM - Real Assets; Leek is Riverstone CEO [updated]

Goldman Sachs, Riverstone, AXA IM - Real Assets, London Executive Offices, Aberdeen Standard Investments, IPSX Group, Paragon, Wafra, Arrow Capital Partners, AP1, Alecta, CREFC Europe, Man Group, Bouwinvest

Riverstone – The Goldman Sachs-backed London retirement living developer has appointed Jason Leek CEO. Leek joins from London Executive Offices where he was CEO. He previously spent 13 years at food and support services firm Compass Group.

AXA Investment Managers - Real Assets – Andrew Piekarski has joined the manager in the US as director of acquisitions. Piekarski most recently at Wafra, a New York-based investment advisory firm, where he spent the past two years in the role of acquisitions director for the southeastern region. Prior to that, he spent 14 years at BlackRock Asset Management where he most recently held the position of managing director, eastern region investment management. Piekarski has also held various senior roles at TGM Associates, Sentinel Real Estate Corporation and Lehman Brothers. In his new role, he will be responsible for sourcing, underwriting and executing acquisitions in accordance with individual client and fund objectives.

Bouwinvest – Wendy Verschoor has joined the company’s supervisory board. Verschoor has since April 2018 operated her own consulting firm specialising in strategic management and governance. Prior to that, she was at CBRE Netherlands as head of client care and at Arcadis Netherlands as director of buildings. She also served as director of the real estate advisory practice at PwC Netherlands. Between 2012 and 2018, Verschoor was president of RICS Netherlands. She is also a lecturer at the Amsterdam School of Real Estate and TIAS School for Business and Society. Bouwinvest, which manages the global real estate mandate for Dutch pension fund BPFBouw, said it expects to appoint a fourth board member shortly to its board’s lineup. In May, the company announced the appointment of Jos Nijhuis and Jos van Lange to the supervisory board.

Aberdeen Standard Investments – Min Chow Sai has been appointed head of investment research – real estate, Asia Pacific. Based in Singapore, he will lead the manager’s real estate research across Asia Pacific and provide investment insight and analysis for its global and regional portfolios. He worked at Nomura Securities in Singapore for over a decade, most recently as executive director responsible for Singapore and regional listed real estate investment research. Previously he held various real estate securities research roles at Lehman and BNP Paribas.

CREFC Europe – At the commercial real estate finance council’s AGM, Emma Huepfl of Laxfield Capital was appointed the association’s chair, succeeding Barry Fowler of Aviva Investors. Huepfl has been a CREFC Europe board member since 2014. Fowler remains on the board as immediate past chair. Lorna Brown, head of real estate debt at LGIM, on the CREFC Europe board since 2016, is the new chair-elect, who will succeed Huepfl when her term as chair ends in September 2020. Directors Dale Lattanzio of DRC Capital and Shirley Smith, an independent director have been re-elected for another year. Andrew Petersen, a CREFC Europe director since 2013, has stood down from the board. 

Man Global Private Markets – Man Group’s private markets investment business has appointed Ian Jackson and Tom Shaw as investment directors, and Marine Guerin as investment associate to join the newly launched community housing business. Paul Beardmore has also been appointed as a member of the community housing advisory committee. Jackson joined last month and is responsible for sourcing and executing investments. He has worked in affordable housing development since 1992. From 2006 to 2015, he was the director of development for Longhurst Group. Shaw, who also joined last month is responsible for sourcing and executing investments. He brings 15 years’ experience in real estate investment and development, the majority of which was spent in senior roles at The Hyde Group. Guerin joined in May this year and is responsible for analysing and executing new investments, as well as assisting in the monitoring and day-to-day management of the portfolio. Previously, Guerin spent three years at Venn Partners within the commercial real estate team. She started her career within the European and UK credit team at Schroders. Beardmore, who joined in March this year, is the former director of housing and residential growth at Manchester City Council. 

AP1 – Johan Magnusson, who was dismissed as chief executive of Swedish state pension buffer fund AP1 at the end of August, has now left the supervisory boards of real estate firms Vasakronanand Willhem. Both companies are linked to his former employer, with Willhem under sole ownership of AP1, and Vasakronan being jointly owned by the three Stockholm-based AP funds, AP1, AP3 and AP4. Vasakronan said Magnusson has been replaced by Mikael Angberg, AP1’s head of asset management, and Willhem has appointed Johan Temse, AP1’s investment manager for real estate, to fill Magnusson’s role on its board.

Alecta – Fredrik Palm, head of real estate at Sweden’s biggest pension fund Alecta, is leaving the company on 25 September, a spokesman confirmed to IPE. Danor Ghersinich, who was previously responsible for the fund’s directly owned properties, is now in place at Alecta as acting head of real estate. Palm, who had worked for Alecta since 2007 and led the organisation’s real estate operation since 2013, is leaving to start his own business. The pension fund said it was in the process of finding a permanent replacement.

IPSX Group – The international property securities exchange has hired Mark Stroud as a senior analyst. The company said Stroud has been brought on board to enhance and implement market regulation procedures. He most recently worked as a compliance officer at Paragon, where he spent four years, and prior to that was a trade surveillance analyst at the New York Stock Exchange for 13 years. Stroud has also held roles at Chase Manhatten Bank and Fimat Futures Options.

Arrow Capital Partners – Sam De Girolamo has joined that real estate investor as head of Italy. Prior to joining Arrow, he was the CEO and managing partner of a private property investment and development company in Italy. He was also a transactions manager at Valad, where he worked on various mandates across the industrial and office markets, and a financial analyst at Westfields and the Commonwealth Bank in Australia.