The Property Council’s current and former national presidents, Stephen Conry and Carol Schwartz, were named in the Queen’s birthday honours, alongside Maha Sinnathamby and other distinguished leaders.
Carol Schwartz AO, the Property Council’s first female national president, was made an officer of the Order of Australia – the second highest honour – for her distinguished service to the community as a supporter of women in leadership roles, to social justice advocacy, and to business.
Current national president Stephen Conry AM, was honoured for his significant service to the commercial property sector and to the community. Conry was joined by Mahalingam Sinnathamby AM, the visionary behind the planned city of Greater Springfield, who was recognised for his contribution to the property industry and the community.
Meanwhile, former Australian Building and Construction Commissioner Nigel Hadgkiss AM was awarded for his service. And the University of Melbourne’s Associate Professor Peter Williams AM was acknowledged for significant service to higher education, particularly to architecture, property and construction.
Vicinity Centres has appointed as its Nicholas Schiffer as chief financial officer, following Michael O’Brien’s departure for QIC in February. Schiffer joins Vicinity from Spark Infrastructure, a top 100 ASX listed company by market capitalisation and owner of leading essential service infrastructure businesses, where he has been CFO since July 2017. Prior to this, Schiffer served in the role of managing director at Credit Suisse for 17 years, with responsibility for investment banking within the energy, transport and general infrastructure sectors across Australia and New Zealand. Kah Wong, currently Vicinity’s acting CFO, will return to the role of general manager of treasury upon Schiffer’s commencement with Vicinity in September.
Scott Ullman (pictured top) has been promoted to general manager of Frasers Property Australia’s residential business in Queensland, after Cameron Leggatt assumed national responsibility for residential. Ullman has been part of the Frasers Property team for 12 years and has been instrumental in securing new acquisitions and re-stocking the company’s residential pipeline in Queensland.
Legal firm Squire Patton Boggs has secured a new senior property and agribusiness partner. Michael Swift has joined the firm’s real estate practice from Allion Partners, where he was partner in charge as well as head of the property and agribusiness teams. Swift will work alongside partners Mark Palermo, Dannelle Howley and Rahul Parrab.
CBRE has appointed Chris Butters as managing director of its Brisbane business. The appointment allows former Brisbane managing director, Flint Davidson, to focus on his responsibilities as CBRE’s national head of its capital markets office division, after holding the dual role for 12 months. Butters has been a key member of the agency’s advisory and transaction services team for seven years, and will retain his current role as Queensland state director of advisory and transaction services for office leasing.
Nicholas Bandounas has joined the ownership team at architectural firm Scott Carver. Bandounas’ portfolio including Macquarie Group’s One Shelley Street, the Star Casino’s multi-use entertainment theatre and Perth’s Brookfield Place. Bandounas joins Scott Carver after 20 years in architecture with a range of firms include Woods Bagot, fitzpatrick+partners, Crone Architects and Warren and Mahoney.
Queensland construction company McNab has appointed Mark Jewell to lead its Gold Coast office. Jewell has spent the last 14 years of his career with McNab, and previously worked on London projects including the redevelopment of the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden and ‘The Ark’ in Hammersmith. McNab’s current projects on the Gold Coast include a major vertical retirement village for Churches of Christ and luxury residential apartment development 31 Broadbeach.
Savills Australia welcomes a new associate director for Asian services into its Victorian CBD and metropolitan sales team. Yvonne Zhou joins Savills from Knight Frank, where she was most recently an associate director for capital markets and Asian services. Prior to Knight Frank, Zhou worked in sales for Ever Bright Development Group and Central Equity Australia.
Mario Nobrega joins JLL as an office leasing director based in the its Glen Waverley office in Victoria. Nobrega comes to JLL with 20 years’ experience across sales, leasing and property management. Most recently, he worked for commercial property management firm Gorman Kelly.