Asia Real Estate People in the News 2020-02-10 

In this week’s edition of People in the News, the CEO of a Mumbai-based conglomerate’s real estate business has stepped down to pursue other interests, shortly after the company posted a 91 percent plunge in third quarter profits.

In other moves around the region, a former senior managing director of CBRE’s Hong Kong, Macau & Taiwan team has picked up a new role in Australia, while the head of CBRE Hotels’ Asia desk in London has expanded her role.

There were also other fresh hires, appointments and promotions at Standard Chartered, Unispace, Altus Group and Pamfleet.

Sangeeta Prasad has resigned as managing director and chief executive officer of Mahindra Lifespaces, the real estate arm of Mumbai-based conglomerate Mahindra Group, according to a regulatory filing. Prasad, who is said to be stepping down to pursue other interests after nearly three and a half years at the helm of the unit of Mahindra Group, will remain at the company until 30 June 2020. Prior to this most recent role, the graduate of the Indian Institute of Management at Lucknow had served as the CEO of Mahindra World City, a subsidiary of Mahindra Lifespaces, after being hired as COO in 2008.

Former CBRE Hong Kong boss Craig Shute has been appointed as JLL’s managing director for the Australian state of Victoria, after parting ways with Colliers. Shute had served as Colliers’ national director of capital markets in Adelaide for more than two and a half years. Prior to that, he had served a brief spell as executive general manager of property for Adelaide Airport Limited, following over 17 years with CBRE from 1998 to 2016, including seven and a half years as senior managing director for Hong Kong, Macau & Taiwan between 2008 and 2016.

Jileen Loo has been appointed as head of Asian investments – cross border investments for CBRE Hotels’ London-based operational real estate team. Loo joined the company’s international capital markets division in London five years ago as a senior director, after relocating from Shanghai where she had served as a senior director from 2008 to 2012. Prior to that, the University of Auckland graduate had served as an associate director for two years at JLL in Shanghai.

Ricardo Chacon has been appointed as Standard Chartered’s ASEAN workplace strategy manager via his role in CBRE’s workplace strategy team in Singapore, where he started in January. Prior to taking up the position with the property services firm, Chacon served for a year and a half as a workplace strategist at M Moser Associates in India, following a year as a client engagement manager with Singapore-based furniture company MTM Solutions. Chacon founded online Latin America-focused infrastructure development knowledge-sharing platform Infraestructura Inquieta in 2017.

Wendy Huang has been hired by design firm Unispace as an APAC business development manager in Singapore, after parting ways with Brookfield facilities services subsidiary BGIS. Huang had served as BGIS’ business development manager for two years following four years with The Executive Centre, where she had served as a senior global account manager in Singapore and as a senior business development manager in Shanghai. Prior to that, the Shanghai Fisheries University graduate had served as a general manager for Regus in Shanghai from 2013 to 2014.

Geeby Wijayaputri has been hired by valuation management services provider Altus Group as an analyst in its Singapore-based APAC advisory team. Prior to joining Altus, Wijayaputri had served as an oil market analyst at oil and energy consultancy FGE for a brief spell following two years as a market development specialist in the buy-side team at Thomson Reuters from 2016 to 2018. The graduate of the CUNY’s Baruch College also completed an internship with Blackstone in New York in the hedge fund solutions team.

Michelle Wong has made the step up to assistant asset manager at Pamfleet, following two and a half years as an associate. Prior to joining the Hong Kong-based real estate private equity firm in 2017, the graduate of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University had completed a graduate traineeship with JLL in Hong Kong between 2016 and 2017 in addition to internships with Savills and AIA.

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.