People moves: Catella CEO Pedersen to step down; Railpen expands real assets team

Elo, Picton, Heimstaden, Sampo, Fredensborg, RPMI Railpen, Foresight Group, Arcus Infrastructure Partners, Aviva Investors, Catella, ABG Sundal Collier, Delancey, LGIM, Gecina, Bouygues Telecom, Beko, Value Retail, Hollis, CBRE, Logistics Capital Partners, DTRE, Cluttons, Strutt & Parker, BNP Paribas

Catella – Knut Pedersen is leaving his role of chief executive of the Swedish investment firm. The real estate manager said Pedersen will continue working in the top position during the maximum six-month notice period, and then step down at the latest in conjunction with the company’s AGM. The AGM is scheduled to be held on 26 May 2020. Pedersen has been chief executive of Catella since 1 January 2014 and came to the company from his previous role at ABG Sundal Collier in Sweden, where he was managing director. Johan Claesson, Catella’s chairman and main owner, said he now wants Pedersen to be elected to the company’s supervisory board. The recruitment process for a new chief executive is starting straight away, he said.

RPMI Railpen – Lewis Vanstone has joined the investment manager for the £30bn railway pension schemes as deputy portfolio manager along with Julian Allport and Alena Antonava as investment managers. All three will report to Ted Jennings the portfolio manager for Railpen’s long-term income fund. Vanstone and Antonava will focus on investments in the infrastructure sectors. Vanstone joins from Foresight Group where he specialised in energy infrastructure projects, prior to which he was at PwC. Antonava draws on more than six years’ experience working at Arcus Infrastructure Partners. Allport will initially focus on long income real estate related investments. He joins from Aviva Investors and prior to this worked for Consensus Business.

Gecina – Antoine Geoffroy has joined the French REIT as director of R&D and innovation. After starting out with IBM Consulting as a consultant in the retail sector, Geoffroy was a strategy manager with Accenture Strategy for five years. From 2016, he was in charge of innovation at Bouygues Telecom. Pierre-Emmanuel Bandioli has joined Gecina as director of student residences. Bandioli worked for Estée Lauder before moving to the Cofel Group in 2009 as national sales director then commercial director France. Before joining Gecina, he was commercial director for white goods with Beko France from 2018. Joséphine Neuman, currently head of leasing for development projects, has been appointed head of leasing from 1 January next year. Neuman was previously with Unibail Rodamco as leasing manager in charge of an office portfolio, then senior leasing manager for the shopping centre division. Before joining Gecina in 2017, she was deputy leasing director for La Vallée Village, part of the Value Retail group.

Elo – Kati Paatela has been appointed portfolio manager for international real estate investments within private equity investments at Finnish pensions insurance company. She took up her new job on 15 November, moving to the company from the real estate investment unit of Nordic financial group Sampo.

Heimstaden – Swedish property developer Heimstaden is appointing Arve Regland as its new CFO. He will replace current acting CFO Magnus Nordholm, who, the firm said, will now be able to focus on his roles as chief executive of Heimstaden’s owner, the Norwegian property developer Fredensborg, and that of supervisory board member of Heimstaden. Regland was also appointed CFO at Fredensborg in August and will continue to work in that role alongside his new position. Heimstaden said he began work as its CFO on 22 November, reporting to chief executive, Patrick Hall.

Delancey – The real estate investment manager has appointed Lorna Brown as director of capital markets. She will focus on devising and implementing real estate led strategies and assist in boosting the growth of Delancey’s portfolio, working closely with its global joint venture partners. Brown joins from her role as head of real estate debt, EMEA at Legal & General Investment Management Real Assets. She held previous senior positions at Blackstone and the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Picton – The UK REIT has appointed Nick Wiles as a non-executive director, effective from 1 January 2020. Wiles’ appointment follows Nicholas Thompson’s confirmation earlier this year that he would stand down as chairman and from the board, having served the company since launch in 2005. The transition to chairman will take place on 1 June 2020, when Thompson formally steps down as a non-executive director of the company. Wiles retired as chairman of UK investment banking at Nomura in 2012. He has worked in investment banking for more than 20 years, with the majority of this time spent at Cazenove & Co, where he was a partner prior to its incorporation. He is currently chairman of PayPoint and until earlier this year was the senior independent non-executive director of Primary Health Properties, prior to its merger with MedicX.

Hollis – Alexandru Maier and Urs Hauptstein have joined the international real estate consultant’s team in Germany as senior consultant and associate respectively. Maier joins in Munich from CBRE PREUSS VALTEQ where he was project manager. Hauptstein is an experienced project director and has spent the past 12 years in India and Kazakhstan managing a range of real estate projects.

Logistics Capital Partners – Will Mullins has joined the pan-European logistics specialist as an associate. Mullins will be working with Angus-Marshall-Andrew on firm’s asset management for Tritax Eurobox listed fund, and also alongside the wider team, identifying development opportunities across Europe. Mullins joins from DTRE where he spent 2-years assisting the team with their first steps into the European market and previously at CBRE as part of both the EMEA industrial and logistics tenant representation and capital markets teams.

Cluttons – The property consultant has hired Steve Cooper as head of development and planning with a remit to grow this area of expertise as part of the business’s strategic plan. Cooper was previously joint head of UK residential at BNP Paribas Real Estate and more recently head of London land agency at Strutt & Parker/BNP Paribas RE. He will concentrate on building Cluttons’ UK-wide proposition through growth in development management, planning, viability and land agency. Cooper will also seek to grow Cluttons’ market share in build to rent and alternatives sectors in due course.