Cornerstone names Standard Life director as new head of France

Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers Europe has announced the appointment of Séverine Laffineur as head of France, in the firm's third European country head appointment this year.

Laffineur will be responsible for originating real estate investment opportunities in the region, as well as sourcing capital from French institutions for investment into Cornerstone’s debt and equity products in the US. and Europe.

Reporting to Nick Pink, Chief Investment Officer - Europe, Laffineur will be based in Cornerstone’s newly opened Paris office, adding to offices in the UK, Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and Finland. Cornerstone employs over 100 staff in 13 European cities.

Laffineur joins Cornerstone from Standard Life Investments, where she spent four years in European Portfolio Management and has a total of 16 years’ experience in the real estate industry. At Standard Life, she was responsible for acquisitions and asset management for the Polish and Danish real estate markets and lead the fund management for a separate account. In addition, Laffineur helped source real estate opportunities in France.

Prior to this, she was National director at LaSalle Investment Management for nine years and was responsible for French acquisitions for commingled funds and separate accounts. Before this, she was a financial analyst for Hammerson in France, and worked within the real estate acquisition and disposal team.

Laffineur's appointment follows the arrival of Adolfo Favieres as head of Spain, while other senior appointments in recent months include: Albert Yang as head of Business Development – Europe; Jorge Duarte as director of Fund Management – Europe; and Valeria Falcone as head of Italy.

Charles Weeks, CEO Cornerstone Europe, said: 'Following the expansion in Germany last year through the acquisition of Pamera, 2015 has been another year of major expansion for Cornerstone in Europe, having achieved our goal of opening offices in Italy, Spain and France. Together with our other senior hires, we now have significant capabilities in key European countries which will underpin our growth plans.'

Séverine Laffineur, head of France, added: 'Cornerstone has a very ambitious growth plan in Europe and it is supported by a long term investment from the parent group. I am excited to be part of this pan European Platform.'