Nuveen Real Estate APAC Head Nick Evans Leaves Firm After 15 Years

Nuveen Real Estate’s executive roster in Asia Pacific continues to evolve, this time with the departure of Nick Evans from his post as managing director and head of Australia and APAC real estate.

The fund manager confirmed to Australian media sources that Evans, who had been based in the firm’s Sydney office, had left the company after more than a decade and a half with the US firm and its antecedents.

A spokesperson for the organisation wished Evans well in his future endeavours, the Industry Moves website reported, with the executive leaving just 16 months after taking over the top spot with Nuveen’s real estate fund management business in Asia Pacific on a permanent basis.

Company Man

Evans had been appointed to his final position just under a year after TH Real Estate was rebranded as Nuveen Real Estate to reflect the firm’s status as the property investment arm of TIAA-controlled investment management giant Nuveen. Before the company rebrand, the Sydney-based executive had served as head of TH Real Estate Australia for about six years after being appointed to the position in 2014.

Before joining TH Real Estate, the Loughborough University graduate had served as an executive director for Australia at Henderson Global Investors — which became part of TH Real Estate in 2014 — after over six and a half years as a fund manager for Henderson’s billion-dollar flagship European open-ended property vehicle.

UK-based Henderson Global Investors had held a 40 percent stake in TH Real Estate — then known as TIAA-Henderson — until US finance giant TIAA-CREF bought Henderson’s stake in the joint venture for £80 million ($98 million) in 2015.

Leadership Refresh

Evans’s exit comes after Nuveen in February announced a renewed leadership line-up in Asia Pacific for its real estate platform, part of a broader global shift towards a sector-based organisation model.

Headlining the revamp was the promotion of Louise Kavanagh to the dual role of head of funds management and chief investment officer for Asia Pacific, overseeing the Nuveen Real Estate business in the region.

Hong Kong-based Kavanagh retained her post as the company’s managing director for Asia Pacific real estate. She continues to oversee the fund manager’s Asia Pacific Cities Strategy, which targets assets in urban areas positioned for demographic and structural growth.

Before joining Nuveen in 2017, Kavanagh spent four years as a director and fund manager at Invesco in Hong Kong and four years as a director and head of acquisitions and asset management at Deutsche Bank in the city.

As part of the leadership refresh, Nuveen announced that Rick Marston would assume the title of head of Australian transactions with an additional regional office sector role, reporting to Kavanagh. Marston most recently had spent two years as head of asset management for Australia, and before that he held the same post for TH Real Estate.

Nuveen had $1.1 trillion in assets under management as of 30 September 2020 and operations in 27 countries.