Kiersten Fishburn steps into the shoes of outgoing DPIE secretary Jim Betts. Vicinity Centres appoints Adrian Chye as chief financial officer and Su-Fern Tan joins CBRE as national head of ESG.
Kiersten Fishburn, former chief executive of Liverpool City Council, steps into the shoes of Jim Betts, outgoing secretary of the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment (DPIE). Fishburn joined DPIE in July 2020 and helped to establish its planning delivery unit, which has accelerated more than 600 complex planning matters since. According to the NSW Government, this has delivered more than $57 billion in economic benefit. Property Council NSW executive director Luke Achterstraat welcomes Fishburn’s appointment, calling her a “force for good”.
Vicinity Centres has a new chief financial officer. Adrian Chye, who had been acting in the role vacated by Nicholas Schiffer in June, has been with the business for more than 15 years. Chye joined CFSGAM Property (subsequently, Novion Property Group) in May 2006, continuing with Vicinity through the merger of Federation Centres and Novion in 2015.
CBRE has appointed Su-Fern Tan in the newly-created role of national head of ESG. The Australian relocates from New York, where she was an advisor to the New York Department of Buildings, and will lead CBRE’s 18-person sustainability team. Tan has held senior roles at Arup, Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Prescriptive Data and Catalent and was an advisory member of the US Green Building’s Council’s Energy and Atmosphere Technical Advisory Group.
Ric Sinclair has called time after 13 years as managing director of Forest and Wood Products Australia. Among Sinclair’s achievements, he championed changes to the National Construction Code to support the use of wood and wood products in mid-rise projects. The FWPA board will be conducting a search for his replacement.
CBRE also has two new hires in its Asia Pacific hotels division: Steve Carroll as head of hotels and hospitality and David Ling as managing director. Carroll, who was most recently with IHG, will lead the firm’s Asia Pacific hotels team, while Ling, hailing from &C REIT Management, brings a wealth of experience in overseeing hotel and hospitality investments. Both are based in Singapore. CBRE expects global hotel fundamentals to gradually recover over the next three years.
Integral Group has nabbed sustainability champion Mary Casey as a principal, bringing with her 25-plus years of experience in building system design and energy analysis. Casey joins Richard Palmer, David Barker and a growing sustainability team. She was most recently director of social infrastructure with HKA, and was a founding director of the Living Future Institute Australia. She also drove sustainability outcomes at Lendlease in the early 2000s.
Knight Frank has announced a new national head of investment sales. Scott Timbrell will return to the role after vacating it in January to take on his current role of partner, head of franchise partnerships, which he will continue to fulfil. He will assume the duties currently covered by Paul Roberts, national head of agency, who has been caretaking in the role. Timbrell says being across the two roles will create a “better synergy” between Knight Frank’s offices.
Urban design studio Oculus has three new landscape architects: Georgia Hopkins in Sydney, and Asa Kremmer and senior architect Kate Mutimer in Melbourne.
Kim Bazeley has been appointed senior design advisor for the Government Architect NSW. Bazely was most recently senior design manager for city transformation with the City of Parramatta. She was with Mirvac for five-and-a-half years, and BVN for more than four.
Rural agents Matt Childs and Adrienne (Boo) Harvey are joining CBRE in its agribusiness. Childs brings extensive negotiation and leadership experience to his new agribusiness capital markets director role, following 16 years at Pat, Rice & Hawkins. Harvey takes on the role of associate director following stints with Inglis Rural Property and Nutrien Harcourts.
Luke Dutton has moved across to JLL from Colliers to take on the role of senior director of tenant representation for New South Wales. Dutton has worked in the commercial real estate industry for over 20 years, providing advice to large national corporate tenants. JLL’s head of tenant representation in NSW, Gavin Martin, has seen increased demand for his division’s services, with transactions “structured around flexibility”.