Asia Real Estate People in the News 2021-11-22

Fun and games lead this week’s roundup of personnel moves from around Asia Pacific, with the owner of a chain of mainland China water parks promoting its chief executive. Also making the list this week are board-level moves at Banyan Tree Holdings and Mandarin Oriental International, as well as a new hire at Bytedance.

Theme park operator Haichang Ocean Park Holdings has named Zhang Jianbin as executive president of the company, according to an announcement to the Hong Kong stock exchange. A former Lenovo and Hony Capital executive, Zhang took on his new title earlier this month after serving as the Hong Kong-listed firm’s chief executive since 2019. In the same announcement, Haichang said that it has promoted Zheng Feng to vice president.

Resort developer and operator Banyan Tree Holdings announced on 19 November that retired Ernst & Young partner Tan Chian Khong has been named lead independent director on its board effective 31 December of this year. Tan is taking on his new responsibilities with the Singapore-listed firm as current lead independent director Timothy Chia Chee Ming prepares to step down “to facilitate board renewal”, according to Banyan Tree.

Hotel operator Mandarin Oriental International Limited said on 19 November that independent, non-executive director Lincoln KK Leong will be retiring from its board on 1 December, after nine years on the top governing body of the Jardine Matheson subsidiary. Leong, who is also a director of Link Asset Management (the manager of Link REIT), had served as chief executive of Hong Kong’s MTR Corporation before retiring on 31 March 2019.

JLL announced on 19 November that it has appointed Paul Brindley as head of debt advisory for Asia Pacific in a moved aimed at expanding its capital markets business in the region. In the newly created role, Brindley is relocating to Singapore from Los Angeles, where he currently serves as senior managing director and co-head of JLL’s capital markets division for the Americas. Brindley will be reporting to JLL’s Asia Pacific capital markets chief executive Stuart Crow once he takes on his new duties from January 2022.

Chen Zhen has joined Bytedance as head of leasing for the mainland tech giant, according to a LinkedIn update. Based in Shanghai, Chen started his new role at the parent company of TikTok this month after a half-year stint at flexible office provider Gee. Prior to joining Gee in June of this year, Chen had spent more than three years with WeWork in Shanghai, where he had served as vice president for real estate, and the graduate of Shanghai Jiaotong University also has previous experience with Carrefour.

Colliers International said on 15 November that it has hired Jeanne Choi as director of valuation and advisory services for its Korean business, effective that day. Choi joins the property consultancy after having previously served as a transactions officer with AMB Property Korea (now part of Prologis) in 2008 and 2009, and also has previous experience with AIG Korea Real Estate Development and Lehman Brothers.

JLL China has hired former Arcadis director Alex Liu as senior director and head of Chinese corporates for its project and development services division, according to a LinkedIn update. Based in Shanghai, Liu came on board with the property agency this month after more than 11 years with Arcadis and EC Harris, before the latter was acquired by Arcadis in 2017. In his most recent role at Arcadis, Liu directed the firm’s project and programme management business in Shanghai.

If you know of other Asia real estate professionals changing their jobs, getting promoted or just doing something exciting, please contact us here at Mingtiandi.