Vicinity Centres’ CFO Michael O’Brien (pictured) replaces Steve Leigh as QIC’s new managing director of global real estate. Meanwhile Cardno has a new CEO in the Asia Pacific and Knight Frank makes two key appointments.
Vicinity Centres’ chief financial officer Michael O’Brien has been announced QIC’s new managing director of global real estate, following Steve Leigh’s decision to step down late last year. O’Brien was with Vicinity for more than three years, during which time he repositioned Vicinity’s real estate portfolio, leading the sale of $2.5 billion of assets and the Sydney CBD/Chatswood Chase Sydney asset swap with GIC. Prior to this O’Brien spent five years with The GPT Group. Vicinity’s general manager treasury, Kah Wong, will act in the role of chief financial officer while an executive search is underway.
Jamie Alonso has been appointed chief executive officer for engineering services firm Cardno in the Asia Pacific region. Alonso has held several senior management roles with Cardno during his 10-year tenure with the firm. Cardno’s Asia Pacific region has 1,500 staff across 35 offices.
Knight Frank has appointed Robert Salerno as partner, head of industrial for Australia. The announcement follows the promotion of Tim Armstrong to head of occupier business development for Asia Pacific. Salerno joins the firm from Goodman where he has been for the past 16 years, most recently as group general manager.
Robin Mellon, chief executive officer of the Supply Chain Sustainability School, has decided to step down after three years in the top job. During his time, Mellon grew the organisation to 2,000 members across 1,000 businesses. He is now looking forward to spending more time with family and writing a book. The hunt for a new CEO is underway.
Paolo Bevilacqua, Frasers Property Australia’s long-time sustainability lead, will drive the developer’s new Real Utilities business. Real Utilities is an authorised energy retailer and utilities business established in 2017, and Bevilacqua takes on the role of general manager.
Sustainability specialist Anita Mitchell is moving back to Australia after nearly three years leading Lendlease’s sustainability function in Europe. She’s taking on the role of strategic initiatives manager for corporate assurance at Lendlease. Mitchell drove Lendlease’s sustainability strategy at Barangaroo South for more than six years, and was head of energy and sustainability services at JLL.