Skip Schwartz to Head Back to US as Heitman Preps New APAC Leadership

Heitman on Monday announced personnel moves to strengthen its Asia Pacific team, including the promotion of two executives as co-leads of regional private equity and an external hiring to beef up client services.

Brad Fu, head of acquisitions for APAC, and Yun Choi, head of portfolio management for the region, will take on further duties as co-directors overseeing the day-to-day running of the Asia Pacific private equity group as the team’s head of the region, Skip Schwartz, prepares to head back to the US, the real estate investment manager said in a release.

Raymond Zhang, most recently of China Orient Summit Capital, joins Heitman as senior vice president and head of client services and marketing for Greater China and Southeast Asia.

“These appointments are in support of our long-term growth objectives for our operations in the Asia Pacific region,” said Heitman chief executive Maury Tognarelli. “We rely primarily on organic growth to support the evolution of our business and have developed an experienced pool of senior executives to draw upon in order to lead and support our growth initiatives. We complement our professional development with a strong recruitment proposition that allows experienced and diverse talent to choose to join our firm.”

Changing of the Guard

After serving as APAC private equity head for 13 years, Schwartz will transition his responsibilities to Fu and Choi over the first half of 2021, then relocate to Heitman’s Chicago head office in the third quarter.

In his new role, Schwartz will continue to sit on the APAC Private Equity Investment Committee, serve as portfolio manager for the Heitman Asia-Pacific Property Investors fund and develop new business in support of the regional leadership team and its Asia Pacific business.

“Skip has served Heitman and its clients from London, Frankfurt, Tokyo and Hong Kong over the past 20 years and will continue to do so from Chicago in the years ahead,” Tognarelli said. He added that Schwartz will advise and support the growth of the Asia Pacific business specifically, while also lending a hand with private equity investment in the US and Europe.

Fu joined Heitman in 2018 as senior vice president and director of acquisitions for APAC. Before that, he was director and head of real estate at Anbang Insurance, responsible for sourcing and executing international property investments in direct asset and corporate transactions.

Prior to joining the Beijing-based insurer, the graduate of New York University’s Stern School of Business served as portfolio manager for strategic Asia real estate at Dutch pension fund manager APG Asset Management and as an investment banking analyst at Singapore’s DBS Bank.

Choi, the director of Heitman’s Seoul office, is a member of the Asia-Pacific Private Equity Investment Committee and an equity owner of the firm. Before joining Heitman as a portfolio manager in 2014, she spent five years in the same role at South Korea’s National Pension Service.

Choi holds a bachelor’s degree in architectural engineering from Yonsei University and a master’s degree in hospitality management from Cornell University.

Selling Services

In his new role at Heitman, Zhang will lead client service and marketing activities in APAC, pitching the firm’s solutions to investors and consultants in strategic regional markets. He will report to Taka Kiura, managing director for Asia client service and marketing.

Prior to joining Heitman, Zhang was a managing director and partner at China Orient Summit Capital with responsibility for investment and global business development. He previously worked at Gaw Capital, where he was responsible for investment in the Greater China region, and at B+H Architects in Toronto.

Zhang holds a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of Toronto and a master’s degree in real estate development from Columbia University.

Founded in 1966, Heitman has over $43 billion in assets under management and employs about 350 people in North America, Europe and Asia.