Asia’s real estate professionals are starting 2020 with a flurry of new roles as the mis-adventures of Japanese venture capital firm SoftBank help drive the largest portion of Mingtiandi’s list of job switches from around the region. In India, Oyo Hotels has begun reshuffling its executive ranks as the hotel management startup attempts to avoid the fate of WeWork, which this week again sees members of its management leaving for companies who have been less disrupted by their own attempts at disruption. Keep reading for all the details on who’s carrying a new name card.
With doubts growing about its business model and reports of layoffs in both India and China in the first month of the new year, Oyo Hotels last week announced that it had promoted Abhinav Ankur to Head of Strategy for Oyo India and South Asia. Ankur, who had previously served as a vice president with responsibility for the company’s budget and mid-market divisions has been with the Softbank-backed startup since joining from Accenture in 2015. Also last week Oyo promoted Sharad Saxena to Chief Supply Officer for its franchise hotels business for South Asia, while Asit Biswal was boosted to Chief Supply Officer for the company’s Frontier Business division for South Asia.
Former ADIA executive Ryan Chan has joined Quadreal Property Group as a Vice President based in Hong Kong, according to an update to his LinkedIn profile. Chan took on his new role with the real estate division of Canada’s British Columbia Investment Management Corporation this month after nearly six years with the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. The graduate of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology also has previous experience at LaSalle Investment Management and KPMG.
Khriztopher Phay has made the switch to e-commerce a full time thing as the former Cushman & Wakefield and China Fortune Land Development executive joins JD Property, the real estate division of online retailer JD.com as General Manager for International. Continuing to be based in Singapore, prior to signing up with China’s second-largest e-commerce operator, Phay had spent just over half of a year with Cushman & Wakefield as the agency’s Head of Industrial/Logistics for Southeast Asia. The former Goodman director also spent just under two years in Singapore with CFLD International before the Beijing developer scaled back its operations outside of China.
JLL has brought aboard former CBRE executive James Crawford as its new Head of Valuations and Advisory Services for Southeast Asia, according to an announcement from the company this past week. In his new Singapore-based role, Crawford will be responsible for valuations across Southeast Asia, while also managing the company’s expansion into Malaysia. Crawford, who had previously spent 12 years with CBRE, will now report to John Talbot, head of valuation and advisory for JLL in Asia Pacific, as well as to Southeast Asia chief Chris Fossick.
Eric Li Zhiliang has been promoted to Head of Greater China Research as well as of Group Research and Strategy for ARA Asset Management, based in Singapore. Li was awarded the new role this month after more than four years with the Warburg Pincus-backed real estate investment manager, after previously serving as Manager for Research and Strategy. The PhD graduate of the National University of Singapore also has previous experience with the research team at M&G Real Estate in Singapore.
AJ Anderson is now a Director with real estate recruitment specialist Project68 in Singapore, after spending a year and a half with WeWork in the Lion City. After joining WeWork as a Senior Recruiter for Design and Development in mid-2018, the human resources executive had been promoted to Talent Acquisition Manager in April of last year. The former student at the University of Hong Kong also has previous experience with recruitment firm the Connected Group.
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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