Fengate Asset Management has announced three key leadership appointments at its real estate business, including the promotion of Jaime McKenna to president of Fengate Real Estate.

The firm also named Alison Kimmell managing director, development and portfolio management; and Colin Catherwood managing director, investments, real estate.

Under McKenna’s leadership, Fengate’s real estate business has grown significantly in the past five years. She has led several key initiatives including establishing the executive team, accelerating capital deployment, launching multiple growth funds and closing numerous transactions.

The group’s pipeline now includes over 25,000 homes and five million square feet of industrial space in various stages of development. 

Kimmell joins Fengate from Hines Toronto, where she led the development of CIBC Square, a three-million-square-foot downtown office complex. She also secured the 1.8-million-square-foot anchor tenant lease with CIBC and raised over $2 billion in capital across both phases of the project.

Kimmell will lead Fengate’s land and development strategy.

Catherwood now leads the Fengate real estate investments team and is responsible for identifying and managing strategic growth opportunities in North America, including origination, acquisition, execution and capital raising across all asset classes.

Prior to joining Fengate, Colin held progressively senior investment leadership roles at Graywood, Welltower and Brookfield Financial.

Three senior execs join Forum advisory board

Forum Asset Management has appointed three industry veterans to its advisory board: David Rogers, Satish Rai and Tom Flynn.

Rogers has over 25 years of private capital investment experience. He is formerly vice-chair of the CBRE Investment Management Canadian office, a firm he founded in 2007 as Caledon Capital Management, before merging with CBRE in 2017. 

Previous roles include senior vice-president at OMERS Private Equity Pension Plan as well as being a founding board member of the Institutional Limited Partners Association (ILPA).

Rai’s experience includes serving as chief investment officer at both OMERS and TD Asset Management. Currently, he is senior advisor at OMERS and serves on the boards of Brookfield Asset Management, Fairfax India Holdings Corp., Richcraft Homes and Second Harvest.

Flynn previously held roles as vice-chair of BMO Financial Group and as both CFO and CRO at BMO. He provides extensive experience in financial leadership and risk management. His directorships include TELUS, Symcor Inc., Ontario Health | Santé Ontario and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. 

Hannon, Brennan nominated to Altus board

Altus Group (AIF-T) has nominated its CEO Jim Hannon, and Will Brennan (managing director at Long Path Partners), to stand for election to its board of directors at the firm’s May AGM.

Long Path Partners is an investment firm founded in 2018 by Brennan, and is a long-standing shareholder of Altus Group. Brennan brings significant experience in public equities investing, including experience investing in the technology sector, as well as financial proficiency and capital markets expertise.

A CFA, Brennan holds a BA in political science and economics from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

They are to succeed retiring members Tony Gaffney and Diane MacDiarmid, who joined the board in 2012. Gaffney also served as chair of the human resource and compensation committee, while MacDiarmid has chaired the corporate governance and nominating committee.

Hyatt reorganizes Americas division, names presidents

Hyatt announced a series of senior leadership appointments in the Americas region, which it has split into two sub-regions: U.S. & Canada and Latin America & the Caribbean (LAC). The groups are being led by two new sub-regional presidents: Susan Santiago for U.S. and Canada, and Gabriel Felip for LAC.

In her new role, Santiago is responsible for the growth and performance optimization of Hyatt’s owned and managed portfolio.

She is in her 32nd year with Hyatt and has held numerous positions leading operational performance, most recently as senior vice-president of Hyatt’s lifestyle division and Miraval brand.

Starkman to retire from Dream

Dream Unlimited has announced chief financial officer Deb Starkman will retire effective March 28. 

“On behalf of management and the board of directors, I would like to thank Deb for her strong leadership, partnership and commitment in executing our strategic vision during a transformational period of growth for the company,” chief responsible officer Michael Cooper said in the announcement.

“Deb will be missed and we wish her the very best in the next chapter of her continuing endeavours, where she plans to use her extensive financial leadership experience in a wide range of industries to broaden her ongoing board work.”

Dream has commenced a search for a new CFO to succeed Starkman.

Internal promotions at Fiera

Fiera Real Estate has announced three internal promotions:

Johnny Chu has been promoted to vice-president, finance, where he will oversee the financial reporting, property accounting and financial systems teams.

John Griffin has been elevated to vice-president, treasury and taxation. He will provide leadership for all fund-level taxation matters and strengthen investor tax support efforts.

Stephan Boire, MBA, CFA becomes vice-president, funds strategy, taking on a key role in capital-raising initiatives and continuing to provide support to the heads of development and debt strategies.

Shamess promoted at Colliers

Jeremiah Shamess has been promoted  to executive vice-president, private capital investment group at Colliers.

Shamess has spent almost 12 years at Colliers, serving as the executive vice-president of the private capital investment group, a role in which he has represented owners in the sale of buildings and land across the Greater Toronto Area and in downtown Hamilton.

Goel takes director of finance post at Mantella

Mantella Corporation has brought Abhi Goel onboard as a director of finance, leading the finance and accounting group and reporting directly to president and CFO Craig Hippern.

Goel has over a decade of finance, accounting and operational experience across varying real estate sectors.

Most recently, Goel was a director of finance with Brookfield Asset Management, managing the financial reporting and business planning for a portfolio of U.S.-based commercial properties.

Goel previously held leadership roles at Starlight Investments, Canadian Tire Real Estate and other firms. He holds an honours bachelor of business administration degree from Wilfrid Laurier University and is both a CPA and CA.

Buksevics, Meikle get new posts at JLL

JLL has named two new executive vice-presidents, Edgar Buksevics and Kevin Meikle, to join its national capital markets team. 

Buksevics' track record includes a diverse portfolio of transactions across Canada. He has managed and executed mandates for a range of property types, including office, retail, multifamily rentals and development land sales.

In addition to investment sales in British Columbia, Buksevics will also advise on forming joint ventures and connecting capital for new projects.

Meikle has extensive experience in real estate investment, joint ventures and financial structuring.

He previously managed the investment sales team, overseeing transactions across various property asset classes including office, retail, industrial and development. He also provided strategic guidance on debt structure, participation debt and equity, as well as project forward sales.

Menard becomes associate, V-P at Maitre Carré

Maître Carré has hired Alexandre Ménard to join the company as an associate and vice-president of investments.

Ménard most recently held the position of senior vice-president at Colliers Capital Markets Canada.

With over 15 years of experience, he has provided leadership in large-scale real estate projects, covering various areas such as brokerage, investment, partnerships and development.