A pair of senior level moves in India lead Mingtiandi’s roundup of Asia personnel moves this week with a top developer saying goodbye to its chief executive and CapitaLand’s India REIT promoting from within. Also making the list is a new CFO at data centre operator PDG and a major Malaysian player loses its chief financial officer.

Prestige Estates Projects announced to local stock exchanges on 10 March that its chief executive, Venkata Narayana K, has resigned after 20 years with the Indian developer and investor. Venkat had held the CEO role since August 2017 after earlier serving as chief financial officer and company secretary. The resignation took effect from that day with Venkat said to be taking on a leadership role with a fund manager following his departure from Prestige.

ESR Group announced earlier this month that it has promoted Philip Pearce to group deputy CEO, reporting to co-CEO’s Stuart Gibson and Jeffrey Shen. Pearce has served as chief executive of the developer and fund manager’s Australia business since it was first established in 2018. ESR Australia now manages over $10 billion in assets, and has a development pipeline of nearly $6 billion in value. Pearce will continue to lead the company’s Australia business in his new role.

CapitaLand India Trust announced on 15 May that it has appointed Gauri Shankar Nagabhushanam as chief executive officer (designate) with effect from 16 May 2024 as part of the SGX-listed REIT’s succession planning. Nagabhushanam is currently CapitaLand Investment’s chief executive officer for India business parks and will succeed Sanjeev Dasgupta in the CEO role around August 2024. Dasgupta continues to serve as CapitaLand’s chief executive officer for India.

Hyperscale data centre specialist Princeton Digital Group said on 16 May that it has appointed Niall Hannigan as group chief financial officer with effect from 3 June. Hannigan joins the pan-Asian digital infrastructure firm from renewable energy firm Masdar where he spent more than 14 years scaling a startup company into an operator of 20 gigawatts of power capacity across 40 countries. Hannigan also previously served as regional CFO of Dubai-listed Emaar Properties and chief financial officer of UAE-based Zabeel Properties.

Malaysia’s IOI Properties announced to the KLX on 13 May that its chief financial officer, Melissa Tan Swee Peng has resigned from the company from 3 June. Tan is said to be leaving to pursue personal interests and opportunities after having been with the developer for around two years. In her role Tan oversaw IOI’s finance and treasury functions, along with other finance duties, with the company said to still be searching for a replacement.

Greenland Hong Kong Holdings informed the HKEX on 17 May that it has appointed Luo Weifeng as an executive director of the company and of chairman of the board with effect from that same day. Luo, who was named chief executive of the company last year, takes the helm from Chen Jun, who is stepping down due to Greenland Hong Kong’s operational needs, according to the statement. Also joining the board of the Hong Kong offshoot of Shanghai-based Greenland Group is Li Yongqiang, who also takes on an executive director role. Executive director Hou Guangjun and independent, non-executive director Lee G Lam also stepped down from the board on the occasion of its annual general meeting.

Caroline Dellasega has joined European fund manager AM Alpha as vice president of investor relations, based in Singapore, according to a LinkedIn update. Dellasega joins the Munich-based investment manager after just over three years with Shanghai-based Anken Group, where she had served as director of investment. The sixteen-year industry veteran also has previous experience with Knight Frank, Cushman & Wakefield and Colliers.

JLL said on 13 May that it has appointed Jolyon Thomson as an executive director with its logistics and industrial team in Singapore. Thomson is already on the job in the Lion City with the four-year company veteran having previously served as head of logistics and industrial with JLL in New Zealand. In his new role Thomson will report to JLL Singapore country head Chris Archibold, with the shed specialist also having previous experience with Colliers.

Michael Kwok has resumed his role as chairman of East Asia with engineering firm Arup, according to a LinkedIn update, after the UK-based company’s office in Hong Kong was victimised in a deep-fake scam. A 37-year Arup veteran, Kwok had turned over the East Asia chairman to Andy Lee one year ago, with Lee having stepped down earlier this month. Media reports this past week identified Arup’s Hong Kong office, where Lee and Kwok are based, as having been scammed out of $25 million in a deepfake-enabled scam.

If you know of other Asia real estate professionals changing their jobs, getting promoted or just doing something exciting, please contact us here at Mingtiandi.