Rushabh Desai Named Head of Asia Pacific at Allianz Real Estate

European heavyweight Allianz Real Estate has hired Rushabh (Rush) Desai to head its Asia Pacific business, where the long-time General Electric executive will be reunited with his former boss Francois Trausch, who now runs Allianz Real Estate globally.

Desai joins Allianz in Singapore after serving for less than a year as Managing Director for Real Estate in Asia Pacific with US private equity player Lone Star Funds. Prior to joining Lone Star in November last year, Desai had spent more than 12 years with GE, including most recently serving as Managing Director for Real Estate in Asia Pacific with GE Capital.

During his time at GE, the graduate of St Xavier’s College in Kolkata served under Trausch, who was based in Tokyo as GE Capital’s CEO for Asia Pacific until joining Allianz in January of this year.

“Rush Desai has built a formidable reputation in the Asia-Pacific real estate industry,” Trausch said in a prepared statement. “His outstanding transactional skills, breadth of relationships and collaborative leadership qualities will aid him to lead Allianz Real Estate Asia-Pacific into the future.

Last April GE Capital agreed to sell off the bulk of its real estate assets to Blackstone and Wells Fargo in a deal valued at approximately $23 billion.

Desai started in his new role on September 1, and will report directly to Trausch, as well as becoming a member of Allianz Real Estate’s Executive Committee.