People on the Move – 24 May 2016

People on the Move – 24 May 2016Penny Ransom moves from DEXUS to Investa; Colliers bumps up healthcare and retirement living business; CBRE buys into Malaysian firm; Laing+Simmons expands franchise network; Savills hires in Melbourne and Sydney.In another major appointment at Investa, former fund manager of DEXUS Wholesale Property Fund (DWPF) Penny Ransom will take on the role of fund manager at Investa Office Fund (IOF) in August. Ransom joined DEXUS in 2011 and has been fund manager of DWPF since July 2014. She previously spent 14 years at LendLease in senior roles. Jonathan Davies, portfolio manager for DWPF, has been appointed as acting fund manager.This latest appointment at Investa follows the departure of Ming Long as fund manager of IOF in April and the recent appointments of Jonathan Callaghan as CEO and Peter Menegazzo as CIO.Colliers International has expanded its Healthcare & Retirement Living business with the appointment of Shalain Singh to head up the division, based in Melbourne. Singh was formerly general manager of Investor Relations & Strategy at Japara Healthcare for more than three years and has held senior positions at NAB, Bankwest and ANZ, specialising in healthcare.In Adelaide, Sascha Frost has joined Colliers’ CBD Office Leasing team as associate director. Frost has worked with several architecture and design companies including, most recently, Schiavello Construction on property development, office fitout, project management and design.CBRE is to acquire a 49 per cent interest in Malaysian real estate services provider C H Williams Talhar & Wong, WTW Real Estate and WTW Property Services. The business will be rebranded as CBRE | WTW and be led by Foo Gee Jen and Danny SK Yeo, the current leaders of WTW.Laing+Simmons has expanded its franchise network in Sydney and made new appointments in its corporate head office. Jackie Jones, formerly of Devine and McGrath, is the new operations manager and Hana Nguyen will coordinate the Corporate and Project Sales Team. The new franchise offices are at Ryde, Seven Hills and Cronulla.Savills Australia’s Retail Services division has appointed Damien Abela to the role of executive – Retail Services in its Melbourne head office. Abela has worked in valuations for the past five years and has specialist expertise in prime strip retailing.Also at Savills, Christina Malcolm has joined the Office Leasing team in Sydney as a director. Malcolm has previously worked for CBRE, Quay Property Marketing and JLL.