Apache Capital taps Watkin Jones for CFO hire

Investment manager Apache Capital has appointed Watkin Jones group commercial finance director Scott Berry to the newly created role of chief finance officer. Berry joins Apache after nearly six years at Watkin Jones and its third-party operational management business, Fresh Property Group, where he was commercial finance director. Across both roles, Scott was responsible for the management of more than 20,000 units in the build-to-rent and student accommodation sectors. Berry’s 20-plus years of finance experience has also included CFO positions at Northstar Asset Management, where he helped launch the European business, and Fortress Investment Group, where he managed the finance teams in London, Frankfurt and Luxembourg for its Eurocastle investment vehicle. At Apache he will report to chairman Mervyn Howard and co-founder and chief executive John Dunkerley, overseeing finance activities including tax planning, financial reporting and budget management and contributing to the development of Apache’s internal operational platform. He will also support relations with Apache’s investors across multi-family build-to-rent, where it has a joint venture with Moda, and single-family housing, through its wholly-owned single-family housing platform Present Made. Investors include Harrison Street, NFU Mutual, KKR and Nuveen Real Estate. Apache has also promoted Claire Ezekwe and Andy Hill. Ezekwe becomes director for transactions and structuring, while Hill has steps up to director of multi-family housing. Dunkerley said: “Scott brings with him incredible experience from the worlds of operational real estate and institutional investment. “As the UK living sectors mature, we see ‘in-sourced’ operational excellence as being a key differentiator for investment managers, and Scott will help us bolster our operational capabilities as we look to scale our multi- and single-family build-to-rent strategies.” Berry said: “We share the view that build-to-rent is still in the early days of the journey to becoming a mature, mainstream institutional asset class like purpose-built student accommodation, and that managers with genuine operational know-how and experience will stand to benefit from the sector’s growth.” Howard said: “Hiring external talent while also nurturing that within our business will be critical to realising our mission of being the go-to partner for institutional capital looking to access the UK living sectors. We are pleased to have someone of Scott’s calibre join us, and also see the progress of Andy and Claire, who have both played crucial roles in our growth to date.”