Stenprop, St Modwen, L&G, Savills, Grainger, Sentinel Real Estate, American Australian Association, Tristan Capital Partners, Peel Ports, Knight Frank, La Française, Deka, Sirius Real Estate, Foresight Group, StepStone Real Estate, CBRE GI
StepStone Real Estate – The company has appointed Frank Forster as a managing director to help lead its secondaries, recapitalisation and co-investment activities in Europe. Forster will be based in London. Before joining StepStone, he worked at real estate investment managers such as EQT Real Estate, Mount Kellett and Blackstone.
Sentinel Real Estate – Keith Lucas has been promoted to managing director to oversee the expansion of the firm’s Australian build to rent platform. Lucas previously served in a similar capacity from New York. He has relocated to Australia from the US. Georgina Duckworth has joined the team to manage investor outreach and relations in Australia and New Zealand as director of client services and marketing. In this role, Duckworth will be responsible for helping to advance Sentinel’s strategic growth priorities and providing best-in-class solutions and service to the firm’s global capital relationships. Prior to joining Sentinel, Duckworth served as director of business at the American Australian Association, where she focused on developing relationships with key stakeholders in the US and Australia to promote economic and governmental cooperation and understanding between the two nations.
Stenprop – The UK multi-let industrial property company has appointed Paul Batho to the newly created role of senior development manager. Batho will be responsible for both sourcing acquisitions of operating assets which offer development and refurbishment opportunities, as well as assessing and managing similar activities across Stenprop’s existing UK portfolio. He spent 18 years at St Modwen where he was responsible for the delivery of over 1m sqft of new accommodation over a wide range of use classes.
Legal & General – Tom Henry joins the firm’s suburban build to rent team as investment director with 20 years’ experience in the UK property market, specialising in build to rent investment. Henry previously held roles as national acquisitions director at Grainger and residential fund manager at LaSalle Investment Management. Henry will help lead the way in establishing suburban build to rent as a major opportunity for Legal & General’s patient capital investment, whilst remaining committed to its key sustainability principals. Leading the operations for the business will be Catherine Hipperson, who previously ran a large BTR portfolio at Savills. In her new role as operations director, Hipperson will help shape and deliver high operational standards of property management and customer service, to support high levels of occupancy and the social need to professionalise the suburban rental market. Finance director, Jane Sullivan, joins from construction and development company, Durkan Group, where she was head of corporate finance. Jane Sullivan held roles at CBRE and Peabody Trust and comes with 17 years’ experience in structuring and financing residential development activity.
Oxenwood Real Estate – The UK and European real estate investment management firm has appointed Peter Land to focus on European investment, Jamie Bird to join UK investment, Chris Lochhead as head of finance and Tim Bradshaw to lead proprietary construction and development projects. Land will focus on the origination and closing of investment transactions in Germany. His experience includes working at Lehman Brothers, Harbert Management Corporation, Westcore Properties and, latterly, Tideway Capital. Bird will work closely with Tom Horncastle and Chris Philpot, focusing on UK acquisitions with primary responsibility for taking transactions through to exchange of contracts and ultimately, completion. Jamie spent five years at M&G Real Estate, where he spent the majority of his time working in the logistics and industrial transactions team. Lochhead joins as head of finance reporting to Tom Boardman. He previously spent four years at Tristan Capital Partners, where he was fund controller in the pan-European fund structures. Before that, following a period in Hong Kong, Lochhead spent three years as group financial accountant for the UK property investment vehicle of the Laing family, Eskmuir Properties. Bradshaw will be responsible for development projects or those with a construction phase, allowing Oxenwood to increase its development exposure. He has joined from Peel Ports, where he was a project manager.
Knight Frank – The real estate consultant has appointed Richard Curran and David Sajner to its management board of in the Czech Republic. Curran joins as a managing director with responsibility for managing the company’s operations and growing the business. He began his career at Cushman & Wakefield before joining CBRE in 2004 as head of agency. From 2008 until March 2020 he held the position of managing director at CBRE, Czech Republic. Sajner has more than 15 years at Knight Frank, he gained extensive experience with the sale and acquisition of commercial properties such as office buildings, shopping centres, logistics and hotels, all around the Czech Republic. He specialises in the sale of properties requiring active asset management, searching for development and investment opportunities for local investors and Czech premium clients. In his new role, he will continue to focus on commercial real estate investing, especially in the small and medium investment segment.La Française appoints new Country Head for Germany
La Française – Mark Wolter has joined a country head-Germany and managing director of La Française REM-Germany. Wolter began his career in 1998 with Arthur Andersen Real Estate as a consultant. He joined Generali Immobilien in 2001, and then Schroder Property Kapitalanlagegesellschaft in 2008 as managing director and head of fund management Germany. From 2010 until the present, he worked for Deka Immobilien as a managing director and head of real estate fund management institutional. Wolter will be supported by the executive team of La Française Systematic Asset Management.
Sirius Real Estate – The operator of branded business parks providing conventional space and flexible workspace in Germany has promoted Rüdiger Swoboda to the newly created executive role of chief operating officer. As part of his extended remit, Swoboda will continue to oversee customer sales and lettings activities, while also taking responsibility for business operations at an executive level, aligning two integral customer-facing functions within the senior management team. He will retain his position as managing director in parallel with the COO role and will continue to report to CEO Andrew Coombs while providing regular updates to the board. Swoboda joined Sirius in 2010 as a sales director before being promoted to the position of joint managing director of Sirius Facilities.
CBRE Global Investors – Mary Lang has been appointed portfolio manager to focus exclusively on the firm’s US logistics investment strategies. Lang joins from Prologis, where she led the global data centre business. Lang will be based out of the firm’s New York City office.
GLP – Former Blackstone group executive Tim Wang has joined GLP as co-president of logistics and industrial real estate in China. Wang will lead the GLP business unit alongside Angela Zhao, and will focus on the growth and strategy of the business, which will include collaborations with strategic partners. Wang was senior managing director at Blackstone. He also worked in the real estate principal investment group of Merrill Lynch in China. Victor Mok, former co-president of logistics and industrial real estate in China for GLP, will continue in his role as chairman and CEO of the company’s Asset Service Platform.
Segro – The company has appointed Simon Fraser and Linda Yueh as independent non-executive directors. They will become members of Segro’s remuneration, nomination and audit committees, with Fraser succeeding Christopher Fisher as chair of the remuneration committee on 1 July. Fisher will retire from the board on completion of his nine years’ service on 30 September. Fraser is the senior independent director and was previously chair of the remuneration committee of Derwent London. He is also a non-executive director of Legal & General Investment Management and senior independent director and chair of the remuneration committee of Lancashire Holdings and a non-executive director of Lancashire Syndicates. He is a former investment banker, having spent the majority of his career with Bank of America Merrill Lynch where he was appointed managing director and co-head of the corporate broking division in 2004. Yueh is a non-executive director of Rentokil Initial and Fidelity China Special Situations. She is also the chair of Baillie Gifford’s The Schiehallion Fund. She is adviser to the UK Board of Trade and member of the independent review panel on Ring-fencing and Proprietary Trading.
Foresight Group – The infrastructure and private equity investment manager has appointed Carol Thompson as director on the board of Foresight Solar & Technology VCT. In her new role, she will serve as a non-executive director, as well as chairing Foresight Solar & Technology VCT’s audit committee. Thompson brings over 25 years’ experience in governance and strategic financial management to her new role, and has spent large parts of her career as a board member in technology and regulated businesses. She has held senior positions at Hellman & Friedman and JP Morgan. She has also held non-executive and advisory roles at a number of firms including Livingbridge, DWF and JP Morgan.
Property Council of Australia – David Harrison, Charter Hall’s managing director and group CEO has been appointed national president of the peak industry body on a two-year term. Also appointed to the PCA committee as vice-presidents are Bob Johnston, GPT CEO and managing director, and Sophie Fallman, managing partner of Brookfield Asset Management in Australia. Harrison takes the reins as from Stephen Conry, CEO, JLL Australia and New Zealand.
