In this week’s edition of People in the News, just a few weeks after Hong Kong’s flagship airline was reminded that it operates at the pleasure of Beijing, the city’s biggest developer has moved to strengthen its mainland bona fides as it selects the former chairman of state-owned China Resources Land as the first mainlander to serve on its board of directors.
In other moves around the region, one of Japan’s biggest investment firms has hired a new head of real estate in Singapore, while a mainland data centre developer may be preparing to start deploying some of its fresh capital as it brings in a new head of M&A.
There are also fresh moves for CBRE, Swire Hotels, and Pamfleet.
Wu Xiangdong has been appointed to the board of Sun Hung Kai Properties, according to an announcement by the Hong Kong-listed developer. Wu, who is also a co-chairman of China Fortune Land Development, along with serving as the state-owned developer’s president and CEO, is the first Communist Party member to serve on the Hong Kong developer’s board, as well as being the first from mainland China. As an independent non-executive director, the former head of state-owned China Resources Group’s property business, China Resources Land, is expected to bring a mainland perspective to the Hong Kong firm’s decision-making.
Varun Malik
has been appointed as Mitsubishi UFG’s head of Real Estate – Sector Coverage and Acquisition Finance in Singapore, having parted ways with Standard Chartered after twelve years. Malik had been a director in the UK bank’s real estate division with responsibility for Southeast Asia and Australia since 2010. A holder of a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Cambridge, Malik had also served as an associate in the Standard Chartered’s metals and mining division.
Hon Meng Yan
has been appointed as a vice president of the customer services and solutions division of CapitaLand following the group’s merger with Ascendas-Singbridge. Yan had served as vice president for Ascendas-Singbridge in the same role since 2018, after joining the company in 2007. Prior to joining the real estate firm, Hon had been based in San Francisco as head of precision engineering for the Singapore Economic Development Board.
Alex Zhang
has been hired as head of M&A for data centre developer GDS Services in Shanghai after parting ways with Brookfield Asset Management after nearly nine years as a vice president for real estate mergers and acquisitions. Have been based in Beijing, Shanghai, New York and Toronto for his former employer, the Duke University graduate was also seconded to the China Investment Corporation for six months in 2013 during a stint with the infrastructure team.
Simon McHendry
has been appointed by Swire Hotels as the general manager of The Temple House in Chengdu after serving as general manager of East in Beijing for over three years and as an executive assistant manager at the Opposite House between 2015 and 2016. Prior to joining Swire Hotels in 2015, he had served for eleven years with the Langham Hotels and Resorts, most recently as an executive assistant manager of Rooms.
Hugh Menck
has relocated to Singapore to join CBRE as an executive director in the capital markets team. Menck makes his move to Singapore after spending a year working for rival Colliers International in Shanghai as an executive director in its capital markets and investment services division. The move to CBRE is a return engagement for Menck, who had served as a director in CBRE’s Shanghai capital markets team from 2014 until 2018. The chartered surveyor had previously been based in Singapore for nine years with Colliers as a director in the investment services division.
Steffi Wong
has taken a job as a senior leasing officer at Hong Kong’s MTR Corporation after parting ways with Henderson Land Development. A holder of a first class degree in economics from Cardiff University, Wong had worked at Henderson for two years, most recently as a senior leasing officer. Prior to joining Henderson, Wong had fulfilled a pair of trainee programs at Sun Hung Kai’s property management unit, Kai Shing Management Services.
Jonathan Cho has been hired as a management trainee for Pamfleet in the real estate fund manager’s Shanghai office. Before taking up his new role, Cho had interned for six months with JLL’s leasing and capital markets team in Shanghai after earning a bachelor’s degree in business administration and management from Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
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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