A top level change at Country Garden’s property management division leads today’s review of personnel changes across Asia’s real estate industry, with a board change at a Singapore REIT also making the cut. Additional moves include a management shuffle at Blackstone and CBRE IM bolstering its client services team.
Country Garden Services Holdings informed the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on 10 October that its president, Li Changjiang has resigned from the property management company after more than 12 years with Country Garden Group. Li’s resignation, which also includes stepping down as an executive director and authorised representative of the company, took effect that same day with the company saying that he had no disagreements with the board and would continue to serve as a consultant to the group. Ranked as China’s largest developer last year, Country Garden appears headed for a debt restructuring after this month that it is struggling to meet its financial obligations. Li is being replaced by chief strategy officer, Xu Binhuai, 44, who was appointed executive director, president and authorised representative of the company on the same day.
Parkway Life REIT announced to the Singapore exchange on 9 October that Joerg Aryle has resigned from his position as a non-executive director on its board from 2 October. Now 54, Aryle joined the Singapore-listed trust’s board in 2021 just three months after being hired as group chief financial officer for IHH Healthcare Berhad. The Malaysian healthcare group operates some of the largest hospitals in Parkway Life’s portfolio.
Blackstone said this past week that the head of its private equity strategy for China and Korea is being transferred to a new role managing its private wealth efforts across Asia Pacific. Ed Huang, who has been serving as chief operating officer and head of Asia acquisitions for Blackstone Capital Partners will hand off some of his previous responsibilities to Shanghai-based Haide Hong, who has been named head of acquisitions for China.
CBRE Investment Management said on 13 October that it has appointed Evan Gallagher as a managing director with its Asia Pacific client solutions team, based in Sydney. Gallagher joins the fund management unit of CBRE group after a year and a half leading a boutique investment manager in Sydney. Previously, Gallagher had spent six years as chief executive for the international division of Blackstone-backed real estate manager ASK Group in Singapore.
Straits Trading said on 13 October that it had appointed Eric Teng Heng Chew as its chief operating officer with the senior level hire having taken place some three months ago. Teng, who had served as chief executive of Straits Developments Pte Ltd since 2019, took on his new responsibilities on 1 July. The 64-year-old had also served as chief executive for property and later added hospitality to that job title for Straits Trading from 2010 to 2013 before moving to an advisory role from 2014 through 2015.
PAG-owned Unispace Group said on 10 October that it has chosen Tim Larson, who currently serves as a design principal at its Downstream unit, to lead its Asia operations. Australia-based design and build specialist Unispace acquired Downstream in 2021, with Larson having been with the Portland, Oregon-based design firm for 27 years. With the management change Larson takes on the title of managing director for Asia and chief creative officer and will be based in Singapore.
JLL has named Chen Lou as diversity, equity and inclusion lead for its China team, according to a LinkedIn update. Lou took on the new role after a year and a half as a senior director leading the property consultancy’s proptech and innovation efforts for Greater China. The graduate of Middlebury College and Duke University joined the research team at JLL in 2018 after earlier stints with Dalian Wanda Group and Chongbang Group.
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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