Asia Real Estate People in the News 2021-12-20

The struggles of China’s cash-starved development giants lead this week’s collection of personnel moves on Mingtiandi, with Shimao Group naming new directors to both its Hong Kong-listed flagship and its property management unit.

In India, KKR has continued upgrading its India leadership with a new director named in Mumbai, and there are new names at Flow Digital Infrastructure and Amazon in Singapore.

Embattled mainland developer Shimao Group announced on 13 December that it has appointed Xie Kun, who serves as chairman and chief executive of the company’s Zhejiang and central China business, as an executive director on its board. Now 53, Xie has been with the Shanghai-based developer since 2010 and joined its top decision-making body on the same day that the announcement was made. Shimao has been rushing to sell assets as it battles to stay solvent and last week saw its credit downgraded by both Moody’s and S&P.

Also on 13 December, Shimao Services, the property management unit of Shimao Group, appointed Liu Yu as an executive director after the 34-year-old had joined the firm in March of this year. Liu serves the property manager as head of its investment and market development centre, as well as head of Shimao Group’s innovation and marketing centre, after a decade in management consulting. In the same announcement, the company said that non-executive director Sun Yan resigned from the board effective that same day, due to a change in job duties.

KKR has promoted Ruchita Maniar to director with its real estate private equity team in India, according to a LinkedIn update. Maniar, who has been with the fund manager’s team in Mumbai since July 2019, took a step up from her principal role this month, with her promotion being made public at the same time that the New York-based firm announced a salvo of personnel changes globally, including the promotion of Hardik Shah to partner from director with its infrastructure team in Mumbai.

CIFI Holdings said on 14 December that the company has appointed Ping An Insurance executive Jiang Daqiang to its board, effective that same day. Now 45, Jiang is currently the general manager of Ping An Real Estate, and also has experience on the boards of developers Redsun and Joy City. Jiang replaces Ping An Investment executive Wang Wei, who left CIFI’s board the same day. Also leaving CIFI’s board last week was independent, non-executive director Gu Yunchang, who was replaced by economist Lin Caiyi, age 56.

PAG-backed data centre developer Flow Digital Infrastructure has added to its Singapore-based team with the recruitment of former Facebook executive Trevor Parsons as head of design solutions, according to a LinkedIn update. Parsons joined the Flow team this month after just over a year and a half with Facebook in Singapore, where he served as data center facility technical manager after spending more than five years with the data centre team at Amazon Web Services in the city. The RMIT graduate also has experience with Credit Suisse and CBRE.

Amazon has added to its team in the region with the hire of corporate real estate executive Renga Ramachandran as senior manager for real estate in Asia Pacific, according to a LinkedIn update. Ramachandran joins the e-commerce giant in Singapore after just over one year with Nestle in the city, where he had served as corporate real estate manager for Asia, Oceana and Africa. The graduate of India’s Bharathidasan University also has prior experience with Hewlett Packard and JLL.

Chollachat Meksupha has joined Bangkok-based developer Siam Piwat as a senior executive vice president, according to a LinkedIn update. Meksupha joins the developer of the Siam Paragon and Iconsiam malls after more than five years with Singaporean real estate investment manager Pacific Star International in Bangkok, where he had served most recently as vice president for asset development and management.

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.