People on the Move – 16 August 2016

While the GBCA announced changes to its board, agency appointments dominated this week with moves at CBRE, McGrath, Knight Frank, Colliers and JLL, while TH Real Estate has hired a new head of sustainability in London and MSG Architects has announced promotions.

The Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) has announced changes to its board of directors. Joining the board will be Rod Fehring, chief executive officer of Frasers Property Australia, Michael O’Brien, chief investment officer and acting executive general manager Development at Vicinity Centres, Kylie Rampa, chief executive officer, Property Australia, Lendlease, Anna Skarbek, chief executive officer, ClimateWorks Australia and Andrew Whitson, group executive and CEO Residential at Stockland. GBCA chair Tanya Cox paid tribute to the three outgoing board members, Mark Steinert, chief executive officer and managing director at Stockland, Tarun Gupta, Lendlease group chief financial officer and Siobhan Toohill, group head of Sustainability and Community at Westpac.

CBRE has made two promotions in its Capital Markets Pacific division. Mark Granter, who has been with CBRE for 26 years, will take on the role as executive managing director – Investor Services, and Bruce Baker will add the leadership of CBRE’s Pacific Capital Markets team to his existing role as senior managing director of Queensland business.

Elsewhere, following CBRE’s securing of the management rights to a new office tower at 177 Pacific Highway, North Sydney, Nathan Chehab has been promoted to general manager of the building. Also in CBRE’s North Sydney office, Dominic Borg, formerly with Knight Frank, has joined the Asset Services team as a property manager, while former JLL professional Claudia Serrano has been appointed as associate director.

It has been reported that Geoff Lucas is to leave McGrath Real Estate, where he has been John McGrath’s lieutenant for the past eight years, to take up an executive role at baker and café group Sonoma. The move follows the appointment in July of Cameron Judson as joint chief executive.

TH Real Estate has hired Abigail Dean as head of sustainability in its London office. Dean was previously with JLL, where she was head of sustainability for the property and asset management business.

Knight Frank has expanded its Global Corporate Services team in NSW with the appointment of two directors – James O’Neill and Matthew Lee. O’Neill previously worked as a leasing manager at CIMIC Group for two and a half years, where he was responsible for the management and strategy of the group’s property portfolio. Lee comes to Knight Frank after more than 10 years at CBRE, with eight years in the industrial and office parks team and two years in industrial investments.

Peter Seeto has joined Colliers International as a director in its Sydney CBD Fringe Sales Investment team.  His previous experience included director of sales and leasing – Retail Property at Cushman & Wakefield, director of retail real estate advisory firm Cabmon Property group and as a leasing executive at DEXUS Property Group.

JLL’s Project & Development Services business has expanded with a number of new state management positions. Ryan D’Arcy, who has been with JLL in Perth for 18 months, has been promoted to WA state manager. Craig Mason joins JLL as NSW state manager. His 35 years experience in the construction industry includes roles at AAP Capital, Westpac, Incoll Management and AECOM Australia. Andrew Lowther, the new Queensland state manager, joins JLL with over 10 years’ experience in the construction, project management and quantity surveying sector. He replaces Tim Moncrieff, who will relocate to Sydney to assume the role of national commercial manager. The new ACT state manager, Aimee Baker, has been promoted to the role.  Baker has been with the business in Perth for more than three years and has relocated to Canberra, while Nick Forostenko, who held the state manager role in Canberra for six years, will take on the management of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) property portfolio, which JLL was appointed to manage late last year.

MGS Architects has promoted three associates in the firm to associate directors. Ahmad Fardi, Catherine Ranger and Simon Wollan collectively have more than 25 years experience at MGS. The firm has also promoted Babak Kahvazadeh, John Bezemer and Katherine Sundermann to the position of associate.