AVID Property Group promotes Anthony Demiris, CoreLogic appoints financial services veteran Mark Woolnough and Carol Schwartz is named board chair of Equity Trustees.
AVID Property Group’s development manager for Harmony, Anthony Demiris, has been appointed to the role of project director Queensland. In this newly created position, Demiris will offer strategic support across AVID’s portfolio of projects in Queensland. Demiris has previously worked for Macquarie Bank and Deloitte in various investment banking and merges and acquisitions roles, before accepting the role of state finance manager Queensland with Investa Land (now AVID Property Group) nearly eight years ago.
CoreLogic International has appointed financial services veteran Mark Woolnough as executive and head of sales for Australia. Woolnough joins CoreLogic from technology-led consumer lending and investment business Plenti where he was chief sales officer. Prior to this, Woolnough spent almost two decades at ING Australia in various leadership roles, most recently as head of third party distribution and direct mortgages and leading a team of 120 people.
RBA director Carol Schwartz has been named board chair of one of Australia’s largest specialist trustee companies, Equity Trustees. Schwartz joined the board in March and holds directorships with Qualitas Property Partners and the Trawalla Group. She replaces Jeffrey Kennett who, along with Alice Williams, have retired from the company’s board. A former national president of the Property Council, Schwarz was previously the chair of Industry Superannuation Property Trust and a non-executive director with Stockland.
International engineering consultancy Cundall has made three key appointments in the Asia Pacific region. Julian Bott takes on the role of managing director and Alex Saez operations director, both in Asia Pacific. Iris Chan has been appointed associate director in Shanghai. Bott has been with Cundall since 2005. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Hong Kong office in 2008 as well as leading sustainable design in Asia Pacific. He is currently based in Sydney. In this newly created role, Bott will be responsible for the overall Asia Pacific business direction. Saez, who will work closely with Bott from the Sydney office, has experience delivering projects in more than 20 countries.
Laagan Whalan has joined Savills Australia as manager for industrial and logistics, based in Melbourne. With more 10 years’ experience in sales and leasing, Whalan has spent the last three years focused on Melbourne’s western and northern markets.
Cushman & Wakefield appointed George Mair as director of tenant advisory group in Perth, strengthening the team’s footprint in Western Australia. Mair will work alongside Michael Kearins, managing director of Cushman & Wakefield’s tenant advisory group to provide strategic leasing advice. Mair joins from Mair Property Funds where he was focused acquisition of office assets in Perth. Prior to that, he was an associate director of real estate for WeWork in Australia and New Zealand.
Melbourne-based commercial real estate agency Gross Waddell has four new owners and a new executive chairman. Danny Clark, previously Knight Frank partner and head of capital markets for Victoria, has bought a stake in the business along with long-standing Gross Waddell staff Alex Ham, Andrew Greenway and Raoul Salter. Barry Novy OAM also joins the firm as executive chairman. He was previously managing director at one of Melbourne’s oldest agencies, Kliger Wood, before the company merged with Teska Carson in 2015. Founded by Michael Gross and Andrew Waddell some 25 years ago, Gross Waddell manages more than 1,000 properties. Both founders will retain their interests in the company and continue as directors.
Fund manager EG has made several promotions within its capital transactions and asset management teams. Michael Noblet has been made fund manager and will focus on the EG Australian Core Enhanced (ACE) and High-Income Sustainable Office Trust (HISOT) funds. Aakriti Chona has been promoted to assistant fund manager for the ACE fund. Will Clark and Pishoy Gobran are now senior managers of capital transactions.
David Webb is joining the executive team of Homely.com.au as the real estate portal’s first head of industry. Webb has held diverse roles in property management, commercial and residential sales, and was most recently in account management at News Corp, Direct Connect and Homely.
Queensland’s departing valuer-general, Neil Bray, has taken up a role with independent valuer Herron Todd White. Bray, who has been appointed head of government and corporate, served as valuer-general for a decade. Prior to this he spent 26 years in the public service, 11 of those as valuer -general for South Australia. Bray says the time was “ripe to make my mark in the private sector”. Australian owned, Herron Todd White has 64 offices in capital cities and regional areas and employs 750-plus staff.