Lorna Brown, head of capital markets at London-based property company Delancey, has started up Birchwood Real Estate Capital, to provide secure real estate loans to UK and European borrowers.
Brown, who joined Delancey in January 2020, is also a former head of real estate debt EMEA at Legal & General Investment Management, and was at Blackstone for five years between 2012 and 2017 focussed on value add investing, asset management and debt. She began her career at Royal Bank of Scotland where she worked for 11 years, three of which were as head of real estate restructuring in the wake of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis.
Birchwood Real Estate Capital was officially incorporated on 20 May this year and has financial capital and backing from W.R. Berkley Corporation, a property and casualty insurance holding company based in Greenwich, Connecticut, in the US
Other directors of Birchwood include three executives from W.R. Berkley Corporation: John Littzi, senior VP and deputy general counsel, Richard Baio, executive VP and CFO, and Philip Welt, general counsel.
