European private equity real estate investment manager Meyer Bergman said on Tuesday that it has made key additions to its senior executive team to manage the firm’s growth and broaden its urban mixed-use investment strategy to include 'last-mile' logistic properties.
The London-based retail-focused firm has appointed two new senior managing directors: Lee Purcell (pictured) as global head of investor relations and Sachin Rupani as head of acquisitions.
Purcell joins from The Carlyle Group where he led the real estate fund-raising efforts as a partner and managing director in the investor relations team. Prior to that Purcell worked for more than a decade as a placement agent at Greenhill & Co and Credit Suisse.
Rupani returns to Meyer Bergman, where he worked from 2009 to 2015, following three years at Cale Street Partners.
Marco Riva also joins the firm as senior vice president for Southern Europe with responsibility for future investments in logistic properties across Europe. Riva joins Meyer Bergman from Logicor, where he worked for five years and invested €2 bn in logistic properties. He previously worked at Goldman Sachs in Italy.
CEO Markus Meijer said: 'The arrival of Lee, Sachin and Marco ensures we are best placed to offer and deliver new strategies to our clients. We are looking to broaden our investment focus to include the final leg of the supply chain -- the so-called last mile to the end consumer. It’s a logical next step for us as long-standing specialists in retail, a sector where retailers now operate fully integrated omni-channel businesses to stay relevant in today’s competitive environment. We have already identified a pipeline of opportunities in European markets where there are shortages of these facilities to service the growing needs of online commerce.'
The trio’s arrival swells Meyer Bergman’s total staff to 48, spread across offices in London, Oslo, Frankfurt, Paris, Luxembourg, Los Angeles and New York.
