More turnover at defaulting Chinese developers leads this week’s collection of regional personnel moves with Shanghai’s CIFI losing a business development leader. Also announcing changes were SGX-listed Frasers Property which named a pair of new directors to its board, and brokerages in Thailand, India and Hong Kong are announcing new leaders.
CIFI Group senior vice president Zhang Haimin has left the troubled mainland real estate developer, according to local news reports. A story in Guandian.cn, citing a conversation with the former China Vanke executive, said Zhang has resigned from his duties overseeing business development for Shanghai-based CIFI to take early retirement. CIFI has shown signs of financial distress recently with the firm having defaulted on multiple debts in the second half of this year.
Frasers Property announced to the Singapore exchange on 17 October that it has appointed Siripen Sitasuwan as an independent, non-executive director on its board, effective from that same day. Formerly president and chief financial officer of Thaksin Shinawatra’s Shin Corp from 1999 to 2007, Siripen, now 74 had also been on Frasers’ board in 2013 and 2014, with her latest appointment announced on the same day that the developer also named former Boston Consulting Group consultant Pramoad Phornprapha as an independent, non-executive director on its board.
US property consultancy Newmark announced on 24 October that it has appointed Andrew Armstrong as a director with its Hong Kong team where he focuses on industrial real estate, including logistics properties. Armstrong joined Newmark recently after just over a year at Colliers in Hong Kong, where he had served as a director with the industrial services team. He also has prior experience at CBRE and Cavendish Maxwell.
Cushman & Wakefield said on 18 October that it has appointed Gareth Powell as its country manager for Thailand as the property consultancy expands its services in one of Southeast Asia’s largest economies. Powell joined C&W in Bangkok in January 2020 as a senior director, after just over four years with JLL in Vietnam and Myanmar, and also has earlier experience with Colliers in Myanmar.
Robbie Sze has been promoted to enterprise director with IWG in Hong Kong, according to a LinkedIn update. In his upgraded role Sze is looking after Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau for the flexible office giant after just more than one year as area sales manager with the company. Sze also has previous experience with CBRE and mainland co-working provider KR Space in Hong Kong after an earlier stint with IWG’s predecessor Regus.
Josephine Ho has taken a step up to development manager with the MTR Corporation in Hong Kong, getting promoted from property development surveyor after just over four years with the manager of the city’s rail network, per a LinkedIn update.. The graduate of the University of Reading and of the University of Cambridge also has previous experience with Henderson Land Development as well as with JLL in the city.
Rajat Johar has joined Savills in Gurugram, India as managing director for the national capital region (NCR), according to a LinkedIn update. Johar signed up with the property consultancy this month after less than a year with local development giant RMZ as a director with its asset management team. The industry veteran also has experience as country head with flexible workspace provider Skootr Offices and with CBRE.
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.
Leave a Reply