Peter Allen passes the baton to Elliott Rusanow at Scentre Group, while Tess Clifford joins ESR Australia, JLL expands its valuations team and Altus Group promotes Sharon Yap.
Peter Allen, Scentre Group’s inaugural CEO and managing director, will step down in September after more than eight years in the role. Allen (pictured) will hand the reins to current chief financial officer Elliott Rusanow (also pictured) who joined the company in 2019, but has been with Westfield since 1999. Scentre Group spun off the Westfield Corporation in mid-2014 following a demerger that split the Australia and New Zealand business from its European and North American assets. Allen leaves the retail giant in good shape, after the group reported a 10.8 per cent increase in operating profit to $845.8 million and property revaluation gains of $81.2 million for the year. Scentre Group’s chair Brian Schwartz AM paid tribute to Allen’s “industry leadership, over many years, is to be commended and particularly through the current COVID-19 pandemic”.
Coronation Property has appointed former NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro as executive director. Managing director Joseph Nahas noted Barilaro brings “a wealth of experience in public policy and stakeholder management” and has a “proven track record managing the complexities of major projects”. Coronation Property has $5.3 billion in mixed-use projects in the pipeline. Among those is the 314-apartment tower 8 Phillip Street, in Parramatta, currently under construction.
Tess Clifford (pictured) has joined ESR Australia as a senior manager in the company’s expanding capital transactions team. Clifford has held investment management roles and transaction roles with high performing organisations, such as Coles Group, where she implemented its shopping centre divestment program. Most recently, Clifford worked with ISPT in capital transactions and more recently development management. Clifford will be based out of ESR Australia’s Melbourne office in Collins Street, though her focus will national.
JLL has expanded and diversified its valuations team with the appointment of three market experts. Anthony Ishac, based in Sydney, joins the valuation advisory digital products team. Tim Stringer, based in Brisbane, is experienced in all aspects of institutional investment management, including portfolio design. Tanya Parker, based in Adelaide, will be JLL’s national lead for data centre valuations. Ishac brings over 17 years of strategic business development experience in property data analytics, valuation platforms and research. Stringer has held senior roles with AMP, Colonial GAM and Frontier Advisors. Parker was national director and head of valuations at Colliers International in Adelaide, and has held roles at Burgess Rawson, JLL, Green Building Council of Australia and Opteon.
Altus Group has promoted Sharon Yap (pictured) to the position of director of cost management in its Perth office. Yap is currently president of the Australian Institute of Quantity Surveyors in Western Australia and is a regional engagement group member of RICS, the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.
Suzie Barnett (pictured) has been appointed CEO of Junglefy, following five years as the company’s general manager. Barnett has driven Junglefy’s operations and growth, creating one of Australia’s leading living infrastructure specialists. She was an executive director with the Green Building Council of Australia for more than eight years.
After almost 10 years as executive general manager for investor relations, communications and sustainability at Dexus, David Yates is moving on. Yates built Dexus’s ESG credentials and brought to life the long-term non-financial drivers of the business through integrated reporting.
GHD welcomes Mary Zwick as global wellbeing leader as the global engineering firm supports its 10,000-strong workforce back to office environments. Zwick holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Public Health and was previously wellbeing manager at healthcare company EHE Health.
CBRE has strengthened its national Retail Investments business with the appointment of a new Victorian state leader, Jaycen Willox, who re-joins CBRE after a 15-year hiatus following senior roles at Coles, Scentre Group and most recently APH Holdings.
The Property Investment Professionals of Australia (PIPA) has elected a new chairperson. Nicola McDougall who has been a voluntary PIPA board director since 2014, takes over from Peter Koulizos. McDougall has been involved in property research, analysis and reporting since 2006 and is the former editor of Australian Property Investor magazine. She held a senior role with the Real Estate Institute of Queensland. Koulizos remains a PIPA board director.