People moves: Viens joins CBRE IM as private infrastructure asset management head

Kingstone Real Estate, CBRE IM, VTS, Europa, Manulife Investment Management, CDPQ, S2 Capital, Lone Star Funds, Knight Frank, Toorak Capital Partners, JLL, Montagu Evans, Segro, KKR

CBRE Investment Management – Nathalie Viens has been appointed managing director and head of asset management for the firm’s private infrastructure strategies. Viens has operational and asset management experience in renewable energy, transport and fibre sectors. Prior to joining CBRE IM, she was an operating partner in Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec’s infrastructure group’s global portfolio, where she was responsible for developing and executing asset management strategies across the portfolio as well as supporting companies in the portfolio through operational improvement initiatives. She also had prior leadership roles with Veolia Canada, SNC-Lavalin, and Accenture.

Manulife Investment Management – Jessica Harrison joins the firm’s real estate investment team as head of US acquisitions. Harrison is responsible for the sourcing, underwriting, structuring, and negotiation of all investments, including portfolio companies, across the US on behalf of clients. Additionally, she leads the investment team providing oversight and mentorship across North America. Harrison was most recently SVP portfolio manager at PIMCO leading commercial real estate investments across the southwest and mountain region of the US and prior to that spent several years at American Realty Advisors sourcing opportunities across various fund strategies. Victor Calanog joins the real estate investment team as global co-head of research and strategy. Calanog was most recently at Moody’s Analytics, as head of commercial real estate economics. Maggie Coleman joins as CIO, North America. She is responsible for developing and executing investment strategies, sourcing strategic platform opportunities alongside key relationships, managing portfolio risk and performance, and driving overall investment decisions and transaction volume across North America. She also oversees performance across all aspects of the North American business on behalf of its clients, including structuring and execution of key ventures, capital formation and integration of existing and new products. Coleman was previously managing partner for private capital advisory at Sera Global and prior to that role spent more than a decade at JLL in various leadership positions.

KKR – Charlie Gailliot has been appointed co-head for the firm’s global climate strategy. Gailliot, who is based in New York, joins global climate co-head Emmanuel Lagarrigue, also based in New York, and Neil Arora, who leads the strategy in Asia and is based in Singapore. Gailliot joins KKR after 20 years as a private markets investor at Goldman Sachs, where he most recently served as a partner and head of the energy transition and the diversified industrials investment teams. Earlier in his career, he spent two years in Goldman’s Hong Kong office working on investments across Asia.

S2 Capital – Mark Halford has been appointed vice president of special situations. He will work with the S2 investments team to focus on opportunistic and distressed acquisitions through the firm’s commingled funds. Halford spent a decade with Lone Star Funds. Following his position as SVP at Lone Star Funds’ Hudson Advisors, Halford became a managing partner at Hillview Capital Partners. Halford began his career in positions at Northmarq Capital and Morgan Stanley Investment Bank.

Knight Frank Investment Management – Matthew McDonald has been appointed CEO, following Kevin Aitchison’s move to Savills IM. McDonald has been a member of the KFIM board since 2015, with responsibility for the products division of the business. With over 20 years’ experience in property investment management, McDonald has particular expertise as a fund manager of pooled property vehicles and has primary responsibility for the growth and operation of KFIM’s principal pooled fund - the KFIM Long Income Property Unit Trust, established in 2016. McDonald has held positions at Dorrington Properties, ING Real Estate Investment Management and CBRE Global Investors where he was the fund manager of the flagship core pooled property fund.

Kingstone Real Estate – Voas Brouns has joined the investment manager’s Dutch subsidiary, Kingstone Benelux, as co-managing partner. Together with Jean Klijnen, Brouns will expand the firm’s activities in the Benelux countries. The focus will be on residential real estate, including student and senior living. Other forms of commercial real estate will also be considered. Brouns has over 40 years of experience in the real estate investment management business and has held senior positions at, among others, APG, Bouwfonds Investment Management, Vesteda and, most recently, as the founder and managing partner of Catella Investment Management Benelux.

Segro – The UK real estate investment trust has made four appointments to its UK senior management team. Dan Holford has been named head of national markets, responsible for leading the firm’s development and asset management activities outside London and the South-East. Holford joined Segor in 2021 as a technical development director. Holford previously worked for construction consultancy Feasibility, where he spent 14 years. Bonnie Minshull has been promoted to head of London, responsible for leading Segro’s development and asset management activities in London. Minshull has been a director of Segro’s Greater London business unit since 2021. Prior to joining Segro she was a director within the national industrial and logistics team at Savills, and held positions at commercial real estate services firm, DTZ, and property consultancy, King Sturge. Stuart McCallion, has been named head of UK technical development, responsible for the firm’s construction and refurbishment activities, including leadership of the group’s efforts to reduce embodied carbon across the UK. McCallion joined Segro in 2022 as technical development director for the Greater London business unit. He has held a variety of technical roles at organisations including Amazon, Valor, Gatwick Airport and served with the Royal Engineers in the British Army. Sean Doherty, has been appointed head of UK investment, responsible for leading Segro’s portfolio management and investment activities across the UK. Doherty has been promoted from his role as investment director for Segro’s Greater London business unit. He has experience working over eight years in a variety of investment and finance roles for Segro in the UK and continental Europe. Prior to joining Segro, Doherty spent six years with EY in London and New York. The new roles will take effect from 1 October 2023.

Knight Frank – The global property adviser has appointed Ben Anderson as an associate within its life sciences and innovation team. Based in Knight Frank’s London office, Anderson will strengthen the firm’s landlord and occupier advisory expertise in the life sciences sector in the UK. Anderson joins Knight Frank from Guy’s & St Thomas’ Foundation where he was a developmental surveyor focused on the development of a new life sciences hub in Lambeth. He previously worked as an asset manager and developmental surveyor at Bruntwood SciTech. 

Europa – Nic Fox, a partner at Europa and member of the value-add investment committee at Europa, will be retiring from later this year, after 16 years with the firm. Fox joined Europa as director in September 2007, as head of Middle Europe and later joined the firm’s equity partnership in 2010. Before joining Europa in 2007, Fox was a managing principal and member of the investment committee at Westbrook Partners. Before Westbrook, Fox gained 10 years’ experience in property management, leasing and investment in UK from 1981, becoming partner at Healey & Baker, now part of Cushman & Wakefield.

Montagu Evans – The planning and development consultancy has appointed Jon Neale as head of research and strategic insight. Neale will take on a firm-wide role providing market analysis, social and economic insight and strategic advice to support the full spectrum of the partnership’s clients in making decisions around future opportunities, risks and impacts. He joins after 12 years at JLL, including a decade as head of UK research and strategy. His previous roles included head of market intelligence at the then Homes and Communities Agency, now Homes England.

Toorak Capital Partners – Scott Goldman has joined the company as head of asset management. Goldman will be responsible for managing Toorak’s asset portfolio and servicing oversight process. Prior to joining Toorak, he served as vice president at Cenlar FSB. During his 17-year tenure at Ally, Goldman rose to the position of managing director, leading a team of 25 associates managing mortgage service operations for the bank’s portfolio. Earlier in his career, Goldman was a special assistant to the deputy mayor for the District of Columbia.

VTS – The proptech firm has promoted Sachin Shah as the company’s new chief customer officer. Shah, who has been with VTS since January 2022, previously served as SVP of customer success. Prior to joining VTS, Shah served as SVP of customer success and support at New York-based life sciences technology company Medidata Solutions. Previously, Shah spent 18 years at IBM.