In this week’s edition of Mingtiandi’s People in the News, the head of broker development at WeWork India has announced her resignation as the co-working giant lays off 2,400 staff.
In other people moves around the region, the CEO of the India division of a US private equity firm steps down from the board Coffee Day Enterprises after the suicide of the founder, and a mainland property developer has appointed a former JLL executive to lead its life sciences real estate office in the US.
There were also new hires and promotions at JLL, lululemon, Hines and RedDoorz.
A senior executive at WeWork’s India operation has left the company, as the troubled office sharing firm rolls out a wave of layoffs. Julie Raisch announced her final day as head of broker development in India for WeWork on Thursday after just over two years with the co-working giant. Raisch said that she is moving into an undisclosed role in the senior housing sector in the US. The New York University graduate had previously served in Shanghai as WeWork’s director of growth partnerships from April 2018 until January 2019 after a seven-month stint in New York for the flexible office company as a growth partnership and sales executive. Prior to this, the former White House intern had served as CompStak’s director of expansion from 2015 until 2017.
Sanjay Nayar, the CEO of KKR India, has resigned from the board of Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd, according to a stock exchange filing by the company that operates the Coffee Day cafe chain. The move comes after the suicide of founder VG Siddhartha who had allegedly written a letter mentioning a private equity partner pressuring him into a share buyback as being one of the reasons he had taken his own life. KKR holds a stake in the company of just over six percent, and Nayar had served as a board member since 2010. In August, Blackstone purchased Coffee Day Enterprise’s Bangalore tech park for INR 30 billion ($420 million).
Lee Timmins has stepped up to chief investment officer of Asia for Hines Investment Management after serving as the firm’s chief executive officer of the Eurasia Region for five years, based in Moscow. In his new role, Timmins will continue to lead the firm’s Eurasia Region, which covers Russia, Europe and India. The University of Texas at Austin graduate has helped lead the growth of the company in emerging markets since joining Hines in 1998.
Matthew Powers has been appointed as chief executive officer of Nan Fung Life Sciences Real Estate, a subsidiary of Nan Fung Group that has opened its first US office in Boston to acquire, develop and manage life sciences-related properties in the US. Powers is joining from JLL where he had served as JLL’s executive vice president of the company’s New England life sciences practice for three and a half years. Prior to his time at JLL, the Nicholls State University had served in the real estate division of Walmart in Arkansas for more than 11 years, most recently as the retailer’s director of realty acquisitions (industrial and e-commerce) from 2012 until 2016.
Michael Glancy, who is currently a senior director of office leasing for JLL in Hong Kong, will be taking up the role of JLL’s head of transactions for Thailand in February. Based in Bangkok, Glancy will have direct responsibility for the agency’s Thailand markets, industrial and logistics, retail, residential, and capital markets teams, reporting to managing director Suphin Mechuchep. The Loughborough University graduate has served in his current position for seven years after two years as a manager of international property for JLL and a stint with Pinnacle Property Investment in the Asian financial hub between 2009 and 2010.
Eunice Tong has been hired by lululemon in Hong Kong as a manager of store development for Asia, after parting ways with Wharf China Estates. Tong had served as an assistant leasing manager for the property developer for almost two years after serving as the company’s senior leasing officer from 2016 until 2017. Prior to this, the University of Hong Kong graduate had served as a property officer and projects co-ordinator at Swire Properties during a seven year spell with the company.
Jupe Tsui has been appointed as chief financial officer of Singapore-based hotel startup RedDoorz after parting ways with Finmas. Tsui had served as the fintech company’s commissioner in Jakarta for less than a year following a stint with Manila-headquartered fintech firm Cashalo. Prior to that, the San Francisco State University graduate had served for a year as CFO of Oriente in Sinapore from 2018 until 2019, and as a regional finance director for Booking.com between 2013 and 2018.
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.
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