The passing of a global architecture giant leads this week’s round of personnel updates on Mingtiandi, as KPF mourns the death of one of its founders. Also making the list is a new chief executive for Singapore’s Surbana Jurong, a board addition at Hongkong Land and new leadership for a Japanese REIT.
Architecture firm Kohn Pedersen Fox announced this past week that co-founder Eugene Kohn had passed away at the age of 92. Kohn, who set up the skyscraper-specialist firm with William Pedersen and Sheldon Fox in 1976, taught at Columbia and Harvard universities in addition to his architecture practice. In Asia, KPF is known for such landmark projects as Beijing’s CITIC Tower, 18 Robinson in Singapore and the Lotte World Tower in Seoul.
Urban design consultancy Surbana Jurong said on 9 March that it has appointed Sean Chiao as its group chief executive officer from 1 April. Chiao joins the Singapore-based unit of Temasek Holdings from infrastructure consulting firm AECOM, where he had served more than 13 years, including working most recently as global chief executive for the US company’s buildings and places business line.
Hongkong Land notified the London stock exchange earlier this month that it has named Stuart Grant to its board as an independent, non-executive director with effect from 3 March. Grant, who will also join the developer’s audit committee, set up the Advanced Research Clusters (ARC) science and innovation real estate platform in the UK with Brookfield in 2020. Grant started his career with Hongkong Land’s parent firm Jardine Matheson in Hong Kong in 1990 and served with the company for nearly a decade before spending nearly 18 years with Blackstone.
Activia Properties announced to the Tokyo stock exchange on 3 March that Masaoki Kanematsu has resigned as president and chief executive of TLC REIT Management, which manages the REIT affiliate of Japan’s Tokyu Land. Kanematsu’s departure comes less than two years after he took on the top executive position with the unit of Tokyu Land. Akira Kubo has been appointed to replace Kanematsu in the president and CEO roles.
Chow Tai Fook Jewellry Group said on 6 March that Chan Sai-Cheong has resigned as executive director and managing director of the Hong Kong-listed retailer’s mainland China unit from 31 March. Chan has been in his managing director role with the company controlled by the family of New World Development chairman Henry Cheng since April 2021. Now 61, Chan has been an executive director at Chow Tai Fook since 2011.
Anna Town has been promoted to head of business development services for APAC and EMEA at Cushman & Wakefield, according to a LinkedIn update. Town took on her additional responsibilities last month after more than four years as head of marketing and communications for Asia Pacific with the property consultancy. Now with Cushman & Wakefield for over six years, Sydney-based Town also has experience with JLL.
Hideaki Suzuki has taken a step up to head of business development services and business development lead for investment asset management in North Asia at Cushman & Wakefield, according to a LinkedIn notice. The Tokyo-based executive had previously served as a senior director and head of business development services for Japan with the property consultancy, and has now been with Cushman & Wakefield for more than six years.
Rosewood Hotels has promoted Lucy Werner to chief commercial officer, according to a statement this month. Werner received her new position over a year after joining the hospitality division of Hong Kong’s New World Group as senior vice president of commercial. In her new role, Werner will be responsible for leading the company’s revenue generation strategies across sales, marketing and other divisions.
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.
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