AEW Appoints Former SC Capital Exec Gillian Chee in Singapore

AEW Capital Management has appointed Gillian Chee as a senior executive in its Asia Pacific team, according to an announcement this week by the Boston-based investment company.

Pending regulatory approval, the former SC Capital Partners senior fund manager will have portfolio management responsibilities for Asia Pacific and be part of AEW’s Asia Pacific Investment Committee.

Working out of AEW’s Singapore office, Chee will join Jeffrey Ong, who has been AEW’s country manager for Singapore since 2011.

Former SC Capital and Aviva Exec Finds a New Home

“We are delighted to add Gillian to our team,” said David Schaefer, managing director and head of AEW’s Asia Pacific region. “Her demonstrated investment and portfolio management background as well as her extensive experience working with institutional investors and consultants will complement and strengthen our existing team and will be highly valuable to our investors.”

Chee left SC Capital Partners in January this year after four-and-a-half years with the fund manager.

Prior to her time with the firm headed by Thai financier Suchad Chiaranussati, the National University of Singapore graduate was a senior vice president with Aviva in Singapore from 2008 until 2014. At the British insurer Chee in 2008 served as the first fund manager of a UK-domiciled pan-Asian open-ended property fund, and led the real estate acquisitions team in Asia Pacific.

Before joining Aviva, the native of Thailand worked as an asset manager with John Lim’s ARA Asset Management in Hong Kong from 2002 until 2004 after previously working with brokerage Chesteron Petty in the city, before it merged with Knight Frank.

AEW Grows APAC Presence

AEW is bringing Chee on board four months after it announced the opening of a new office in Tokyo, headed up by Steve Bass, to support the expansion of its Asia Pacific business in Japan.

Since reaching a $1.12 billion final close on its third APAC value-add fund in June last year the private equity firm has been involved in transactions worth more than $1.5 billion in the region, including deals worth nearly $1 billion during the past two months.

Last month AEW acquired Chevron House in Singapore’s Raffles Place for $758 million and in March sold a community shopping centre in northeastern Singapore to Chee’s former employer, SC Capital for $170 million.

AEW, along with its affiliates, manages $74.8 billion in property and securities across North America, Europe and Asia. The firm’s Asian operations are headed by David Schaefer, via offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo.