Mirvac’s former head of retail, Susan MacDonald, rolls up her sleeves for Mainbrace, Stockland’s CFO Tiernan O’Rourke is moving on, Altis Property Partners nabs James King and CBRE acquires Turner & Townsend.
Mirvac’s former head of retail, Susan MacDonald, will assist the board of retail specialist Mainbrace Constructions as a strategic advisor. MacDonald spearheaded one of the country’s most innovative and successful large-scale retail businesses. She has held leadership roles with Lendlease and AMP Shopping Centres, and has served as joint deputy chair of the Shopping Centre Council of Australia. Mainbrace has delivered more than 1,500 projects worth $4 billion since 1989, including Narellan Town Centre in western Sydney, Yamanto Central in Queensland and the $200 million redevelopment of the iconic David Jones Sydney CBD store.
Tiernan O’Rourke is moving on from Stockland after eight years as its chief financial officer. Before joining Stockland O’Rourke was CFO at Transfield Services Limited and also chief executive of Transfield Services Middle East and Asia Region, CFO of Australand, which became Frasers Property Australia. He has also held senior finance positions at AGL, Westfield, CSR and Brambles. O’Rourke will continue in his position until late 2021.
With its sights set on the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Stadiums Queensland has appointed three new board members: Peter Hyland, John Warn and Sharon Finnan-White. Stadiums Queensland manages the state’s $1.2 billion stadia portfolio. Hyland recently returned to Australia after working as the regional director of Urbis Australia’s international business, Cistri, in Singapore. Hyland, a life member of the Property Council, is considered one of the region’s most experienced urban land-use strategists. Warn is chief operating officer of hotel group Accor Pacific and former chairman of Cricket NSW and Destinations NSW. Finnan-White was the second Indigenous player to represent the Australian Diamonds netball team, debuting in 1990 and retiring from the sport in 2000. The new appointees join chair, Cathy McGuane, and board members Amanda Shircore, Brendan O’Farrell and Sharron Caddie.
CBRE Group is stumping up US$1.3 billion to acquire a 60 per cent stake in Turner & Townsend, a UK-based global leader in program, project and cost management. Bob Sulentic, CBRE’s president and chief executive officer, has hailed the“transformational transaction for our project management business in terms of both breadth and scale of capabilities”. Vincent Clancy, Turner & Townsend’s chairman and chief executive officer, will continue to run the company, and all its services will remain under the Turner & Townsend brand. A new board of directors has been appointed, including three CBRE executives: Sulentic, Jack Durburg and Chandra Dhandapani, global CEO and COO, respectively, in CBRE’s global workplace solutions business. The board will also include three Turner & Townsend executives: Clancy, finance director Jeremy Lathom-Sharp, and COO James Dand.
Locally, CBRE has announced new bench strength in its retail asset management team. Lee Lawler has been elevated to state manager, retail property management, for Western Australia and South Australia. Guy Washington has been promoted to state manager, retail property management, for Queensland. Candace Kennedy has assumed the role of national marketing manager for CBRE’s retail centre management team. Lawler joined CBRE’s Perth office in 2008 as a property manager before quickly moving into senior management roles. Washington joined CBRE in 2018 as a portfolio manager after a career in banking and finance. Kennedy joined CBRE in 2018 as a retail marketing manager in Brisbane and has led the marketing strategy for more 50 retail projects across Australia.
Altis Property Partners has expanded its capital team with the appointment of a new director, James King. The former director and head of investor relations for Qualitas, King will be responsible for the key functions of capital raising, investor relations and product development across the Altis platform. Altis has a 40-strong team managing a total portfolio of 30-plus assets with around 775,000 sqm of space worth upwards of $3 billion.
Odette Linnett is joining AMP Capital as its new investment director for the Community Infrastructure Fund. Linnett, previously investment director and director of corporate finance with Deloitte Australia, will work alongside Mathew Pirotta and Carolyn van Leuven. In her new role Linnett will manage assets for Victorian Schools, the Darwin Convention Centre and NSW Schools II.
Ken McBryde has joined architecture firm Gensler as design director. McBryde led his own firm, Architectural Physics, for several years; he is adjunct professor at the University of Sydney, and a state appointed alternate member of Sydney and Regional Planning Panels. Gensler has operated in Australia for seven years, and its Sydney-based team is led by managing director Tom Owens.
Architecture and design firm, Architectus, has made two new appointments to its national interior architecture team: Stirling Fletcher as senior associate and Sara-Jane Bacon as associate. Fletcher held an associate principal position at Woods Bagot in Perth and prior to that was the regional leader of Geyer Perth. He has worked as a design consultant on many city-shaping projects in the Perth CBD including KPMG, PNG Bank, VGW and Quadrant Energy. Bacon, formerly an associate at Bates Smart’s Sydney Studio, led a team of interior designers on Nine Entertainment Co’s new Sydney offices and Brookfield Properties’ workplace at the recently completed Brookfield Place Sydney. Bacon was also design manager for Estee Lauder Companies Inc.
Melbourne-based proptech Rental Heroes has appointed a new national sales manager, Leanne Sorby. Launched in January 2020, Rental Heroes already has more than 50,000 tenants across Australia subscribed to its artificial intelligence chatbot, Alex, to handle everyday requests. Sorby’s real estate career spans nearly two decades in sales and property management for agencies in Auckland, London and Sydney. She has previously worked for Agentbox, MRI Software and Movinghub.
REA Group welcomes Eleanor Creagh as its new senior economist. Creagh, who joins REA Group after a stint as senior market strategist at Saxo Markets Asia Pacific, will work alongside director of economic research, Cameron Kusher, specialist economists Anne Flaherty and Paul Ryan, and group chief audience and marketing officer Melina Cruickshank.
South Australian architecture and interior design firm Matthews Architects has announced two new senior appointments to its team: Yvonne Rantzen as senior interior designer and Kevin Leek as senior architect. Rantzen has 25 years’ experience in delivering complex large projects across the education, commercial, health, care and residential sectors. Recent roles include interior design principal at Hames Sharley in Adelaide and senior associate and head of onteriors at Conrad Gargett in Brisbane. Leek also has more than 25 years of local and international experience; he was previously senior architect and principal at DesignInc Adelaide, and before that, architect and associate at Cheesman Architects. He’s also held roles in England and South Africa.
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