In this week’s review of people moves, Ares Management continues to grow its team in the region, while Kaisa Group announces more leadership churn. There is also a top level departure from Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands and promotions at Phoenix Property Investors, Colliers and Atkins.
Ares Management continues to expand its foothold in Asia Pacific, with the company having hired Danielle Lau as a managing director with its Landmark Partners division in Hong Kong. According to an announcement on LinkedIn, Lau this month joins Landmark, which specialises in acquiring secondary fund ownership stakes, after more than five years as a senior portfolio manager with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. Ares entered Hong Kong in 2020 by acquiring a controlling stake in SSG Capital Management and earlier this year hired former KKR executive Bryan Southergill to run its Asia real estate business. Before joining the HKMA in 2017, Lau also served stints with Aetos Capital Real Estate and with Morgan Stanley Investment Management.
Singapore-listed GuocoLand said on 14 October that its chairman, Moses Lee had retired at the company’s annual general meeting that day. Lee, 71, retired by rotation after almost nine years the developer’s board, according to a statement to the stock exchange. The former commissioner of Singapore’s Inland Revenue Authority also left his post as an independent, non-executive director with GuocoLand, with the chairman role taken over by GuocoLand’s controlling shareholder, billionaire Kwek Leng Chan.
Kaisa Health Group Holdings informed the Hong Kong stock exchange on 10 October that Zhang Huagang has resigned as chairman of the company with his leadership role to be taken over by Kaisa Group chairman Kwok Ying Shing from that same day. Zhang, 59, is set to remain as an executive director of the health division of Kaisa Group, after joining the board as chairman in 2020. Kaisa, which has defaulted on debts both offshore and domestically in China, has seen multiple directors resign their posts with the group’s companies in the past year.
George Tanasijevich, formerly a managing director at Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands, has left the firm after almost 20 years with the company and its parent organisation, Las Vegas Sands, according to a report in the Straits Times. Tanasijevich led Marina Bay Sands’ successful 2006 bid for one of Singapore’s two casino licenses and had served as president and chief executive of the company until 2020 when he took a step back into a managing director role. Tanasijevich is said to be joining a real estate project in Saudi Arabia.
Yvonne Szeto has been promoted to a portfolio management role at Phoenix Property Investors in Hong Kong, according to a LinkedIn update. Szeto takes her step up with the private equity fund manager after serving more than three years as a manager, and has now been with the Hong Kong-based firm for more than four years. The University of Chicago graduate also has experience at Morgan Stanley.
Colliers announced on 12 October that it has promoted Richie Lau to senior director with its office services team in Hong Kong. Lau moved up a notch after more than three years as a director with the same team, with his promotion announced the same day that Colliers said it was upgrading Rachel Chin to senior associate director with its valuations and advisory team and that Selina Wong was stepping up to assistant manager with the office services team.
Atkins has promoted Darren Cartlidge to head of buildings and places for Asia, according to a LinkedIn update. Based in Hong Kong, Cartlidge is now responsible for planning, architecture, interiors, landscape and other business units for the engineering firm after joining less than a year and a half ago as a director with its business development team. The graduate of Scotland’s Robert Gordon University also has previous experience with Benoy in Greater China.
Big Data Exchange announced on 14 October that it has hired Deepa Swaminathan as a vice president with its marketing team. Swaminathan recently oversaw the launch of BDx Indonesia, where the company took over operations of four data centres, according to a statement from the company. After joining BDx in February of this year, Swaminathan also played a role in the data centre operator’s relocation to Singapore.
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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