Aberdeen Standard rejigs real estate top team as Hannigan prepares exit

Aberdeen Standard Investments has “simplified” its global real estate leadership structure, as UK head of real estate Mike Hannigan prepares to leave the business. Hannigan outlined plans a few months ago to retire from the business in Q1 2021. Until then, he will take on an interim role focused on corporate strategy, reporting to global head of real estate and deputy head of private markets Neil Slater (pictured). Separately, departures from ASI during the rest of the year will include: global head of real estate investment research Andy Allen; global head of investment for platform and business operations Claire George; head of wholesale and real estate trusts Mark Watt; head of secure real estate Richard Marshall; and development manager Ron Urquhart. Slater has “repositioned” the top team to focus on “new areas of growth”, and balancing local and global needs. The global real estate leadership team will consist of: Anne Breen, head of real estate investment strategy; Andy Creighton, head of real estate investment management; and Paolo Alonzi, head of real estate business management, finance, operations and structuring. A new global real estate management function has been set up to support this team. This has been split into fund management, asset management and functional leads. Slater said: “These changes continue the direction of travel for real estate that we first signalled last year when we established the private markets franchise. “It is the first step towards the creation of a truly focused and agile ASI Real Estate team that will be well positioned to deliver a broader range of outcomes for our clients and continue to meet their evolving needs. “The best way to advance this strategy is with a simplified leadership structure that is specifically designed to harness our global fund management capabilities, focusing on new areas of growth and balancing local versus global needs.” At the end of last year, ASI’s 300-strong real estate team managed around £41.2bn of assets across the UK, Europe, Asia and the US on behalf of its global client base. The new global real estate management team’s roster: Fund management The fund management team will be divided into seven categories:. Core: Nick Ireland has been appointed as head of core. His deputy will be appointed in due course. Core plus: Cameron Murray has been named as head of core plus and Veronica Gallo-Alvarez has been appointed as deputy head of core plus. Value add: John Lee has been appointed as head of value add. Jason Baggaley will be deputy head of value add. Residential: Fabian Klingler has been appointed as head of residential. Marc Pamin is now deputy head of residential. Nordics: Thomas Wolff will continue his existing role as head of Nordics. Listed: Svitlana Gubriy continues with her existing role as head of listed. Multi-manager: Mark Wilkins will retain his role as head of multi-manager. Asset management Bernd Bechheim has been appointed as head of asset management. Simon Moscow is now head of asset management – UK. He will report to Bechheim. John Brophy becomes head of real estate development and building services, reporting to Bechheim. Rob Cass is expanding his existing UK remit to take on a global role as head of transactions. Dan Grandage continues in his existing role as head of ESG and reports to Breen. Tessa Allen continues with her existing role as head of private markets and real estate structuring, reporting to Alonzi.   To send feedback, e-mail pui-guan.man@egi.co.uk or tweet @PuiGuanM or @estatesgazette