Mark Roberts, former global head of research at Invesco Real Estate, joins RREEF today as managing director and global head of research based in New York.
RREEF's Mark Roberts: joins from Invesco Real Estate
Roberts has been on gardening leave since May. While RREEF said this is a new role, he will assume some of the responsibilities previously carried out by Peter Hobbs and Asieh Mansour. Hobbs, who was head of EMEA research, left RREEF in August to join IPD in September as its global deputy CEO, alongside group CEO, Laurent Ternisien.
Mansour was head of infrastructure, private equity and alternatives until the division was transferred out of RREEF, the real estate investment business of Deutsche Bank Asset Management, in late 2009 to another part the bank. Mansour then became head of research for the Americas until Alan Billingsley, formerly director of research and a member of the RREEF Research team for more than a decade, replaced Mansour in October 2010.
Roberts is expected to focus on RREEF’s investment process, improving decision-making and liaising with clients. Roberts, who joins as a member of RREEF’s global investment committee, will be based in New York and reports to Kurt Roeloffs, global chief investment officer at RREEF.
The senior hire leaves a global director of research vacancy or similar at Invesco Real Estate, which the fund manager is still looking to replace. This is just one of a number of senior real estate research roles currently up for grabs.
CBRE Investors and ING are still deliberating on its global head of research and strategy; Allianz Real Estate is still looking to find a new head of investment strategy, after Joe Valente left in May to join JP Morgan Asset Management as European head of research and strategy. In addition, Thomas Schreck, Allianz Real Estate head of research, is leaving at the end of July to pursue an academic career and; Peter Damesick’s promotion to CBRE EMEA chief economist leaves the property services giant looking to fill his old role, UK head of research.
Roberts’ hire follows the recruitment of Simon Durkin in January as head of research in Europe. Durkin, who now reports to Roberts, joined from CoStar/ Property & Portfolio Research (PPR), where he was European director of research and analytics. Yen Keng Tan heads research in Asia Pacific.
At Invesco, Roberts was global director of research, chairman of the firm’s investment strategy group, and a member of the executive and investment committees.
“Mark’s depth of knowledge and perspective on the trends driving the global real estate landscape are highly complementary to RREEF’s legacy of delivering best-in-class market intelligence to clients and investment teams,” said Roeloffs. “He is a leading authority on real estate research and we are extremely pleased to have someone of his calibre join our team.”
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