The appointment of a new chairman for a troubled mainland real estate marketplace leads today’s roundup of personnel moves from around the region, with Hong Kong-listed JD Logistics also making the list with its selection of a new finance chief. Also in the news, ARA Asset Management has named a new head of private funds and Colliers’ regional COO has shifted southward.
Mainland real estate listing platform Fangdd Network Group said on 18 May that it has appointed its chief executive, Xi Zeng to the additional role of chairman of the NASDAQ-listed company. With the ascension of Xi, who was a co-founder of the company, fellow co-founder Yi Duan has stepped down as chairman, but will remain a director of Fangdd. The company, which has seen its stock decline by nearly 93 percent over the past year, lost RMB 1.2 billion (180 million) last year after losing RMB 192 million in 2020.
JD Logistics said on 17 May that it has appointed Su Shan as chief financial officer effective that same day. The 40-year-old executive replaced Yue Ma, who will assume a new role within the JD Group, the company said. Shan joined JD Group in December 2021 after leaving Lavender Hill Capital Partners, where he spent most of the year as managing director. Before that, Shan, who is a chartered financial analyst, worked at Goldman Sachs, where he was an executive director until leaving the bank in September 2019.
ARA Asset Management said on 20 May that it has appointed David Blight as chief investment officer for ARA Private Funds as part of the consolidation scheme for ARA Asset’s fund management business with that of ESR, which acquired the asset manager in 2021. Blight co-founded ARA Australia in 2015 and had served as chief executive of the firm since then. Formerly CEO of ING Real Estate Investment Management from 2005 to 2008, Blight is also nonexecutive chairman of Melbourne-based boutique commercial real estate fund manager IP Generation and a director of senior living developer Lifestyle Communities, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Sam Harvey-Jones, chief operating officer for Colliers in Asia Pacific has relocated from Hong Kong to Singapore, Mingtiandi can reveal, as a growing number of regional executives migrate to the Southeast Asian financial hub. Harvey-Jones, who took on his COO role in January after previously serving as managing director for occupier services, has now been with Colliers since 2015.
JLL said on 20 May that it has appointed Robert Anderson as director for client coverage for Hong Kong as part of the firm’s capital markets division for Asia Pacific. Anderson, who joins the real estate services firm after working at Mirae Asset Securities as a senior vice president, will oversee client coverage and capital markets advisory for key institutional clients based in Hong Kong as part of his new role the company said.
Sean Linkletter has relocated to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to take on the role of director and data visualization specialist for workplace dynamics at JLL this month. Prior to his escape from Shanghai, Linkletter worked as director and head of JLL’s Real Estate Intelligence Service (REIS) China real estate data service since 2018, and had earlier served as a senior analyst in the firm’s Shanghai office, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Australian workplace designer Unispace has named Sean Moran as principal of client engagement for Asia, starting this month. In a 17 May LinkedIn post, Moran, who had served most recently with the global client services team at M Moser, said he will relocate to Singapore from San Francisco from next year to join the company, which was acquired in March 2021 by Hong Kong-based private equity firm PAG. Moran’s previous experience includes almost four years at JLL, where he had served most recently as senior director for business development and client services.
Cushman & Wakefield has hired Shankar Narayanasamy as client solutions lead for its global occupier services business in Asia Pacific, with effect from 9 May. Based in Singapore, Narayanasamy worked at Sodexo for more than eight years before joining the real estate services firm and at private firm ISS Facility Services since February, according to his LinkedIn profile.
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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