Townsend Group appoints ex-ING executive

The Townsend Group has appointed Nick Cooper, former CEO of ING Real Estate Select, as Principal in its London office. His responsibilities will include growing the firm’s real estate multi-manager investment management business in the European and Asian markets and participating in the company’s Global Investment Committee.

While at ING, Cooper managed £4 bn (EUR 4.6 bn) for over 150 investors in non-listed real estate funds worldwide and developed Osiris, the UK’s largest property fund of funds. Adam Calman, Principal for The Townsend Group in London said: 'Nick Cooper’s extensive experience in the industry and high reputational standing with institutional investors will be a real boost for The Townsend Group’s rapidly expanding investment management business in Europe and Asia. Real estate markets globally are offering the best investment opportunities in a generation, but only to those who have the expertise and infrastructural support to seek out those opportunities and underwrite the risks. We believe with the addition of Nick that Townsend is very well positioned to be an industry leader in identifying the best real estate investments for our clients around the globe.'

The US-based Townsend Group is one of the largest global providers of real estate advisory and investment management services to institutional investors.
The company advises on over $100 bn in property investments around the world on both a discretionary and non-discretionary basis. Its clients include
major European, Asian and US corporate and public pension schemes; sovereign wealth funds, endowments, foundations and high net worth investors.

Nick Cooper developed the ING Real Estate Select business over 10 years and managed both European and global property funds of funds, as well as worked on many segregated institutional accounts. In total Cooper has advised pension funds on both direct and indirect property investment for over 27 years. He has also recently completed a three-year term as Chairman of the Association of Real Estate Funds in the UK, an established property industry group open to fund managers and others involved in the business.

The Townsend Group was founded in 1983 by Terry Ahern and Kevin Lynch to providing advise institutional investors worldwide. The company is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio in the US.