Natalie Howard, one of the most experienced women working in property lending, has taken up a new role as head of real estate debt at Schroders.
Howard left DRC Capital, where she worked as a partner since July 2018, in September.
At Schroder Real Estate Investment Management she will develop a small debt investing business which launched two and a half years ago with the Income Plus Real Estate Debt Fund, exclusively for clients of Schroders’ indirect investing arm.
Venn Partners was appointed as debt adviser to the fund which made bilateral whole loans in the UK.
Based in London, Howard is a well-known figure in real estate debt circles.
At the time of the global financial crisis she was at Lehman Brothers.
She subsequently set up her own business in 2009 with former Lehman colleague James Wright before taking her team a year later to fixed income management boutique AgFe. At AgFe she led capital raising for senior private credit in real estate at a time when big fixed income investors were dipping a toe into the sector largely for the first time.
At Schroders she will be working with Sophie van Oosterom who will join in January 2021 as global head of the €19.2 bn real estate business after Duncan Owen steps down this month.
Van Oosterom was previously EMEA CEO and CIO at CBRE Global Investors.
