ULI, M&G Real Estate, APG, ICICI Bank, JLL, BPF, Palmira Capital Partners, Crestbridge, Cale Street Partner, The Instant Group, IMMO Capital, Cushman & Wakefield

Palmira Capital Partners – Christean Schmidt has been appointed head of sustainability to lead the ESG team. His responsibility will be to ensure that ESG criteria are observed in investment decisions, in asset management and in the corporate environment. Prior to joining Palmira, Schmidt was head of the sales department at a company providing heating, ventilation and air conditioning technologies, where he developed holistic concepts for CO2-neutral commercial properties. The newly created head of sustainability role is part of Palmira’s plan in restructuring its ESG team as a separate business unit that will allow the company to broaden its ESG capabilities that have been acquired and developed in recent years.

M&G Real Estate – Martijn Vos has been appointed as head of continental European living business to spearhead its expansion into the sector. Based in Amsterdam, he reports to Alex Greaves, head of UK and Euro living. Vos will drive M&G’s European residential strategy to create sustainable housing opportunities for M&G’s European property fund range. He joins from APG Asset Management, where he held various senior, strategic and board roles. Most recently as director of real estate Europe.

Cushman & Wakefield – The global real estate services firm has appointed Marcus Wood as head of UK retail capital markets. Wood will rejoin Cushman & Wakefield as an international partner later this year from JLL, where he spent four years as a director leading the out of town retail team and more recently in its capital markets asset repositioning team. Wood previously worked in Cushman & Wakefield’s Retail & Leisure team for 25 years, specialising in out-of-town retail, leisure and grocery. He will lead the UK retail capital markets team advising on transactional activity in the UK retail and leisure market.

Knight Frank – The independent global property consultancy firm has appointed Sandra Schröder as head of capital markets in Munich. Schröder started her career in investment at JLL in Budapest, she most recently worked for UBS Global Asset Management as transaction manager in acquisitions and sales. At Knight Frank Munich, Schröder will head the capital markets team, which currently has six employees including management, to offer multisector advisory in collaboration with Knight Frank’s other German businesses. Maximilian Weis joined Knight Frank on 1 April after seven years at Cushman & Wakefield. As associate director, he is part of the capital markets team and responsible for special client services, advising renowned national and international key account clients. Previously research analyst at Cushman & Wakefield, Dennis Beißer joined the firm in March to reinforce the capital markets team as senior consultant in research. He is predominately responsible for data collection and analysis, gathering data-based market insights. In addition, the team has also recruited two new joiners into analysis and marketing roles.

Crestbridge – Dean Hodcroft has been appointed CEO. Hodcroft joins Crestbridge from real estate investment firm Cale Street Partner. Prior to this, he spent 26 years at Ernst & Young, making partner in 2001, leading their Real Estate Tax group. He then became head of EY’s real estate practice for EMEIA where he advised real estate funds, investors, developers, family offices and sovereign wealth funds. 

ULI – The Urban Land Institute has appointed of Jürgen M Volm, partner and member of the executive board, pom+ Consulting, as chair of ULI Switzerland who officially began his voluntary two-year term on 1 July. Volm succeeds Birgit Werner, CEO of Indevise Group, who led ULI Switzerland from 2016. Volm is an accomplished real estate industry expert with experience in international project management and project development, and he is also the programme director of the International Project Management Masters Course at Stuttgart University of Applied Sciences. Before moving to pom+ Consulting, Volm was responsible for setting up Drees & Sommer in Switzerland. Khoo Teng Chye, who teaches at the faculty of engineering and the School of Design and Environment at the National University of Singapore, has been appointed as chair of the ULI Asia Pacific region. Khoo, fellow and former executive director at the Centre for Liveable Cities, succeeds Nicholas Brooke, chairman, Professional Property Services Limited, Hong Kong, and officially began his voluntary three-year term on 1 July. Nicholas Garattini, head of business development and investor relations at Generali Real Estate, has been appointed as chair of ULI’s NEXT Group in Europe, which engages and supports real estate professionals aged 35–45 as they seek to take the next step in their careers. He succeeds Galyna Permyakova, who chaired the European NEXT Group for the last two years. Garattini officially began his voluntary two-year term on 1 July and will join the ULI Europe executive committee as part of his role. Garattini has been a member of ULI since 2014 and has previously served as chair of ULI Italy’s young leaders group.

JLL – Lata Pillai has been appointed as head of capital markets, India. Pillai will advise domestic and international clients on investments and financing solutions in the Indian commercial real estate market. She joins JLL from ICICI Bank, where she was instrumental in building its real estate finance desk. Pillai has some 30 years of experience in banking and real estate space, including a stint at Deutsche Bank.

BPF – Mark Allan, CEO of Landsec has become junior VP of the British Property Federation. Allan joins BPF president David Partridge, senior partner of Argent and chairman of Argent Related – and BPF VP Guy Grainger, global head of sustainability services and ESG at JLL.

The Instant Group – The commercial real estate solutions specialist has appointed Lucinda Pullinger as its new managing director for the UK. Pullinger joined Instant as global head of HR two and a half years ago from the Rugby Football Union, where she was HR director. Prior to this, she spent 11 years at Shell in global HR leadership roles having started her career at Accenture. In her new role, Pullinger will be responsible for the financial and operational performance of the UK business while leading Instant’s growth strategy across the region.

IMMO Capital – Andrew Baum has joined the tech-enabled end-to-end platform for single-family residential investment management as a strategic advisor and investor. Baum is renowned for his role as professor of practice at the University of Oxford. His private sector roles include chairman of Property Funds Research and chairman of Newcore Capital Management as well as leadership roles at CBRE Global Investors, Invesco and Grosvenor.

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