A new head of real estate at one of Canada’s largest pension fund managers leads Mingtiandi’s round of industry personnel moves from around the region this week as the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan reorganises its management. Also making the list is Warburg Pincus president Jeffrey Perlman and a new chief investment officer for the region at DWS.
Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan this past week announced that it has appointed Pierre Cherki as executive managing director for real estate with effect from 22 January. Cherki previously spent more than 22 years at Deutsche Bank’s DWS asset management division and has served on the board of Cadillac Fairview since June of 2022. The graduate of the Kellogg School of Management is being appointed to the newly created role to oversee the C$250 billion ($184 billion) fund’s real estate asset group as Ontario Teachers’ shifts its Cadillac Fairview team in-house from 1 January.
Warburg Pincus president Jeffrey Perlman has been named chairman of the US-ASEAN Business Council according to an announcement on 8 December. Perlman, who had served as the fund manager’s head of Southeast Asia and head of Asia real estate before being promoted to the president role earlier this year, will lead board oversight of the non-profit group’s efforts to create trade and investment opportunities in the Southeast nations which constitute ASEAN.
DWS announced on 4 December that it has appointed Ivy Ng as chief investment officer for Asia Pacific as the company gives more management authority in its regional offices. Ng, who joined DWS in 2013, is currently a senior portfolio manager with the asset management affiliate of Deutsche Bank and took on her new responsibilities immediately. As part of the same initiative, DW also named Vera Fahling as CIO for Western Europe.
WeWork announced on 5 December that it had named Claudio Hidalgo as its chief operating officer with immediate effect, after the shared office provider last month filed for bankruptcy in the US. Hidalgo had served as chief operating officer for the Americas with WeWork since June of this year and was COO of WeWork Latin America from April 2020 through August of 2022. Before joining WeWork he had spent four years at telecom firm Sprint.
GDS said on 7 December that it has appointed Liu Chee Ming, an independent, non-executive director at Singapore telecom technology firm ST Telemedia, as a director on its board with effect from 4 December. As part of the move, Liu has also been named as a director by ST Telemedia’s data centre division, STT GDC, which is the largest shareholder in GDS. Liu replaces Lee Choon Kwong, who is resigning from the board for what are described as personal reasons.
Shimao Services announced to the Hong Kong stock exchange on 8 December that Cai Wenwei has resigned from his role as an executive director and chief financial officer of the group with effect from 10 December. With Shanghai-based Shimao Group, parent company of Shimao Services, struggling to secure an agreement on debt restructuring with its lenders after defaulting on offshore bonds, Cai, who had been on the board since 2020, is said to be resigning to devote more time to his personal commitments.
Chris Wu, group chief financial officer with Shanghai-based Chongbang Group said this past week that he is leaving the developer after more than a decade. Wu had been promoted to the group CFO role in 2020 after previously working as managing director for investment and development. Chongbang had been among Shanghai’s most successful commercial developers before China’s market slowdown, and is known for its portfolio of retail-driven Lifehub projects.
ESR informed the Hong Kong stock exchange on 7 December that it has appointed Joanne McNamara, executive vice president and head of Europe with Canada’s Oxford Properties, as a non-executive director on its board. McNamara will take on her new role on 1 January. Oxford Properties, the real estate investment division of the Ontario Muncipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) has been one of the largest investors in ESR.
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.
