Asia Real Estate People in the News 2019-05-27

In this week’s edition of People in the News, a big Singapore developer makes a change at the top of its listed hospitality trusts, while a boutique investment firm which helped in the recent $1.34 billion acquisition of Beijing’s Dinghao Plaza by Partners Group gets a new managing director of capital markets. Elsewhere in the world of Asia real estate people moves, a property agency in Singapore sees a set of senior executives depart its project marketing team, while agencies in Shanghai and Hong Kong welcome new arrivals in capital markets and international project marketing.

Colin Low will replace Eu Chin Fen as chief executive officer of Frasers Hospitality Asset Management and Frasers Hospitality Trust Management. Low joins Frasers from CBRE where he was head of hotel investment properties for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, working out of CBRE’s London office. His one year at CBRE came after a previous seven years with Frasers, most recently as the head of investment at Frasers Hospitality Trust from 2014 until 2018, and as director of business development for Frasers Hospitality between 2011 and 2014. Prior to this, Low held senior positions at AIG Global Investment Group, The Ascott Limited and UOB. Eu, who has been chief executive officer since 2014, will take up the role of chief investment officer at Frasers Hospitality from July 1st.

New York Stock Exchange-listed Internet portal operator Fang Holdings Limited has brought in Howard Huyue Zhang as an independent director and member of the board’s audit committee following Sam Hanhui Sun’s resignation. Zhang has served as the managing director of CITIC Private Equity’s real estate division since last year. Prior to this, the holder of degrees in architecture, urban planning and real estate from North American universities was managing director of Greater China real estate asset management for Blackstone Group (HK) Limited and the chief investment officer for six years at Infrared NF Investment Advisers Limited, a Hong Kong-based private equity real estate fund.

Boutique advisory and investment management firm SDP Investment welcomes Jialin Li as managing director of capital markets in Shanghai. Li joins from Fosun Property Holdings, where she was managing director of capital markets for two years. The University of Erlangen-Nuremberg graduate was formerly Tishman Speyer’s director of acquisitions and development in Shanghai from 2013 until 2017 following a year with real estate investment firm IMC Octave. Prior to this, she served as an investment manager for Gaw Capital from 2007 until 2012.

JLL has hired Frank Yao as a director of capital markets in Shanghai, who returns for his second stint with the company after previously working for the property services company as a manager from 2011 until 2014. Yao parts ways with Colliers International where he had been an associate director since 2017. Originally trained as a computer science engineer, the graduate of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, previously founded office leasing startup NF China in 2014, and was an IT specialist and project coordinator for Kerry Properties from 2005 until 2009.

Paul Fisher has made the step up to senior director this month after three years as director of tenant representation for JLL in Hong Kong. He was formerly a director and head of corporate tenant representation at Cushman and Wakefield for two years following the property services company’s merger with DTZ. Prior to this, the University of Salford graduate held associate director level positions with DTZ for almost nine years from 2005 until 2014.

Cushman and Wakefield has appointed John Koh as the company’s head of international project marketing based in Singapore. In his new role the marketing specialist will lead a new team responsible for the sale of new-build residential developments across London and the UK, which Koh says remain very attractive to Asian investors. He joins Cushman and Wakefield from real estate agency Propnex where he was a senior associate marketing director from 2018. Prior to this, Koh had held managerial and associate positions at Colliers International and Knight Frank in Singapore.

Tan Tee Khoon will part ways next month with Knight Frank after eight years serving concurrently as the property services company’s head of residential (project marketing) for Singapore and as the key executive officer of Knight Frank’s luxury residential agency arm in Singapore, Property Network. A fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing and a member of the Singapore Institute of Surveyors & Valuers, Tan has been responsible for business growth and the supervision of all registered salespersons in the Knight Frank subsidiary, with the agency doubling in size under his management. He will be leaving to pursue other professional interests, according to The Business Times.

Alice Tan, who is currently serving as Knight Frank’s director of residential project marketing in Singapore, will be leaving the company this month, according to The Business Times. Having taken up her position at Knight Frank in 2018, Tan has been responsible for overseeing business development, client services and securing developer project appointments. She was formerly director and head of consultancy and research at the property services company for six years. A graduate of the National University of Singapore and the recipient of the Real Estate Developers’ Association of Singapore gold medal, she also worked as senior manager and head of research at Rider Levett Bucknall from 2006 until 2012.

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.