GLP Hires Former Blackstone China Real Estate Boss Tim Wang

Singapore-based warehouse operator GLP on Thursday announced its hiring of former Blackstone executive Tim Wang as co-president of logistics and industrial real estate in China, where he will serve alongside Angela Zhao.

In his new role, Wang will focus on the growth and strategy of the business, including collaborations with strategic partners, GLP said in a release.

Before joining GLP, Wang’s most recent post was senior managing director at private equity giant Blackstone in China, where he led the company’s mainland real estate operation.

“As GLP continues to strengthen its logistics business we are invested in growing our team and attracting people with a diverse set of experiences and market knowledge,” said GLP co-founder and CEO Ming Mei. “Tim will make a tremendous addition to the team.”

Strategist Resurfaces

Mingtiandi reported last September that Wang would leave Blackstone by the end of 2020. Sources familiar with the matter said he was taking some time off.

During his time leading Blackstone’s China real estate strategy, Wang was responsible for developing and later exiting residential, commercial and industrial real estate platforms for the world’s largest manager of private real estate funds.

Blackstone’s biggest mainland deal of 2020, a proposed $4 billion buyout of commercial developer Soho China, was called off in August as it apparently fell victim to the COVID-19 pandemic, which readjusted values for real estate assets around the region.

Before joining Blackstone in 2010, Wang was a director in the real estate principal investment group at Merrill Lynch in China from 2007.

Wang has a bachelor’s degree in economics from Zhejiang University in Hangzhou and a master’s degree in international business from Australia’s Curtin University. He is a director of Chinese real estate firm SCPG Group and a global trustee and executive committee member of ULI Asia Pacific.

New Comrades

Co-president Angela Zhao is responsible for planning, design, marketing and public relations for GLP’s real estate business in China. She also spearheads the firm’s I-Park office park business.

Zhao previously served as GLP’s general manager in Suzhou from 2008 to 2011 and headed investments and public relations from 2003 to 2008. Before joining GLP, she worked for Singapore’s Ascendas Group (now part of CapitaLand), where she was responsible for business development in China.

Former co-president Victor Mok continues in his role as chairman and CEO of GLP’s Asset Service Platform, which manages more than 300 logistics and industrial parks serving over 1,600 customers in China.

“As an entrepreneurial-minded company, we look to leverage internal talent to build and grow businesses within our ecosystem that will maintain our position as one of the most innovative and technology-driven organisations to support our customers,” CEO Mei said.