A new hire at a top US fund manager and an upgrade at one of Canada’s largest pension fund managers lead this week’s survey of personnel moves around Asia’s real estate industry, with a Beijing-based data centre operator and a Fuzhou-based developer also making changes.
AEW has hired Christopher Chiang, former head of Asia real estate for Credit Suisse, as its head of acquisitions for Asia Pacific, sources with the US fund manager confirmed to Mingtiandi. Chiang joined AEW in Singapore this month, where he will look after private equity real estate investing across the region, after concluding a more than six-year stint at Credit Suisse in February of this year. The Curtin University graduate also has previous experience with CBRE’s capital advisory unit and with JLL.
Oxford Properties Group has nominated Alessandro Fiascaris, the institution’s head of Asia Pacific, to join its executive committee, as part of a wave of management moves announced on 25 July. Fiascaris, who joined the real estate wing of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) in January 2022, is one of six senior members of the Oxford team nominated for the committee, with the group also naming Tim Remis to the newly created role of chief investment officer, where he will oversee Oxford’s global portfolio.
Nasdaq-listed data centre operator VNET Group said late last week that it has appointed Tim Chen as the company’s chief strategy officer with immediate effect. The move returns Chen to the strategy role he had held from August 2020 through April 2021, when he was appointed chief financial officer. With this latest update the Columbia University graduate hands over the CFO role. which he had held since May 2021 to Qiyu Wang, previously VNET’s vice president of finance, who joined the company in April 2022.
Hong Kong-listed developer Fullsun International has a new leadership team headed by chief executive Hiroshi Kaneko, who was named executive director of the mainland company in a stock exchange announcement on 26 July. Now 59, Kaneko takes over the CEO spot from Pan Haoran, scion of the Pan family which had controlled the Fuzhou-based developer since before it listed on the Hong Kong exchange via a reverse merger in 2017. The deal marks a turnover of Fullsun from the Pan family to Hong Kong investment firm CIS Group Ltd, after the developer had defaulted on debt obligations.
Former Savills Investment Management managing director Yo-Hann Tan has been named as an interim independent non-executive member of the Standards and Regulations board at the UK’s Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), according to a LinkedIn update. Based in Singapore, Tan took on the board position this month after leaving Savills IM in January, and had previously served more than eight years as head of southeast Asia real estate at BNP Paribas Real Estate.
Following the announcement of its merger with TPG in May, Angelo Gordon continues to rework its leadership team with the company announcing on 24 July that managing directors Marc Lessner (pictured) and Xavier Dailly have been appointed co-deputy portfolio managers of its open-ended structured credit fund. The duo will work alongside Angelo Gordon’s Head of Structured Credit, T.J. Durkin and Yong Joe, the team’s head of structured credit research, who continue to lead the fund as co-portfolio managers.
Austin Xu has joined Savills in Shanghai as a director with the property consultancy’s capital markets and property investment team, according to a LinkedIn update. Xu moved to Savills after more than 14 years at Colliers in the city, where he had worked most recently as a director with the Canadian firm’s capital markets and investment services team. The graduate of Shanghai’s Tongji University also has previous experience with Knight Frank.
Sharon See has joined Cushman & Wakefield in Singapore as a senior manager with the company’s capital markets team, according to a LinkedIn update. See signed up with C&W after more than three and a half years at Savills in the city, where she had been a manager with the company’s investment advisory team for Asia Pacific. The National University of Singapore graduate also has previous experience with WeWork and Edmund Tie.
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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