David Bowden, new vice-chairman and head of strategy and consulting at Colliers Canada. (Courtesy Colliers)

Alex Avery has been appointed executive vice-president, asset management and strategic initiatives of H&R REIT (HR-UN-T), one of a series of moves in its executive halls.

Avery has been a member of the REIT’s board of trustees since 2017, and in this newly created role will pursue opportunities to leverage the scale and capabilities of H&R, focus on diversifying and optimizing the REIT’s sources and cost of capital, and other initiatives. He’ll work closely with the Lantower Residential and Primaris operating segments.

Avery brings a wealth of capital markets experience and knowledge as an analyst and investment manager, and remains on H&R’s board of trustees.

Blair Kundell has been promoted to executive vice-president of operations. Kundell joined H&R in 2004, and has held progressively more senior executive roles, most recently as vice-president, operations. In his expanded role, Kundell is responsible for building operations, tenant services and joint health and safety across the REIT’s office and industrial portfolios aggregating 28 million square feet across North America.

His experience includes a variety of roles overseeing commercial property operations, project management, tenant services, and emergency preparedness.

H&R also announced the retirement of Nathan Uhr from the role of chief operating officer.

“For nearly 50 years, Nathan has played a key role in H&R’s evolution, at predecessor companies through the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, joining the REIT’s senior management team in 1996 at the time of the initial public offering,” said Tom Hofstedter, the REIT’s president and CEO. “He has been a dear friend to our organization and my family, and his contribution to the REIT’s operations have been essential.”

Uhr has agreed to remain available to REIT management to share his knowledge and experience.

Bowden assumes new role at Colliers

David Bowden has assumed the new role of vice-chairman and head of strategy and consulting at Colliers Canada. Bowden most recently served as CEO for Canada at Colliers International and will focus on integrating Colliers’ existing consulting practices into a national real estate strategy and consulting entity in his new role.

With more than 40 years of experience in the commercial real estate industry, Bowden has established deep connections and innovative business perspectives, providing strategy and guidance on best practices in corporate leadership, change management and innovation.

He holds a bachelor of commerce in urban land economics from the University of British Columbia and is a member of REALPAC.

Among his accomplishments, in 2019 Colliers Canada was awarded top honours by the International Property Awards and the Building Owners and Managers Association of Canada and earned a spot on the inaugural Women Lead Here benchmark study from Report on Business Magazine.

Bowden has also served as a mentor to the Colliers Proptech Accelerator program.

Slate appoints three new partners

Slate Asset Management (SOT-UN-T) has appointed Robert Armstrong, Lisa Rowe and Peter Tsoulogiannis as partners.

They join Slate co-founders Blair and Brady Welch and fellow partners Lucas Manuel and Ramsey Ali in forming Slate’s management committee.

“Bobby, Lisa and Peter have made exceptional contributions in growing our business and I am, together with the rest of the partners, delighted to congratulate them on these well-deserved promotions to the Slate Asset Management partnership,” said Slate’s Blair Welch in the announcement. “The trio have been instrumental to our success across regions, business lines and strategies, consistently achieving first-rate results while exemplifying Slate’s culture.”

Armstrong joined Slate in 2015 and oversees Slate’s finance and reporting functions. He was chief financial officer of Slate Office REIT and Slate Retail REIT.

Prior to joining Slate, Armstrong was a partner in the real estate practice of Deloitte LLP, where he was also on the executive committee for the Toronto assurance practice and was Deloitte’s Canadian IPO leader. He also worked at Brookfield Asset Management in various capacities.

Armstrong is a CPA, CA and holds an honours bachelor of business administration from Wilfrid Laurier University.

Rowe joined Slate in 2013 and is responsible for all aspects of tax and structuring. She has played an integral role in the structuring and creation of all of Slate’s current business verticals.

Prior to joining Slate, Rowe led the tax due diligence and tax structuring elements of transactions in Deloitte LLP’s M&A Tax group. Rowe is a CPA, CA and holds a bachelor of business administration from the Schulich School of Business at York University.

Tsoulogiannis joined Slate in 2014 and has been responsible for corporate development and strategic initiatives. He played an integral role in building out Slate’s European fund business and many major acquisitions.

Prior to joining Slate, he held real estate investment banking positions with BMO Capital Markets and CIBC Capital Markets. He holds an honours bachelor of business administration from Wilfrid Laurier University.

New EMD at Colliers Vancouver

Douglas M. Pulver is the executive managing director of Colliers’ Vancouver office. (Courtesy Colliers)

In a separate announcement made Monday morning, Colliers has hired Douglas M. Pulver as executive managing director of its Vancouver office. Pulver brings 26 years of experience operating and investing in businesses and real estate, having acquired, financed and guided real estate assets for Trizec Properties, Cadillac Fairview, and most recently, Gibralt Capital.

As well, he has helped acquire and lead several private operating companies, focused on building a foundation for long-term success.

Pulver will lead the existing Colliers Vancouver management team of Maury Dubuque, senior managing director, and Raj Sidhu, managing director.

Sturges joins Raymond James research team

Raymond James Ltd., announced the appointment of Brad Sturges to its Canadian Equity Research team as managing director, equity research analyst, covering the Canadian REIT/REOC sector.

“Brad brings extensive sell-side research experience with strong institutional client and real estate issuer relationships to the role,” says Daryl Swetlishoff, head of research at Raymond James, in a release. “Institutional and retail clients alike will benefit from his proven track record of proficient stock picking and earnings estimation.”

He holds an honours bachelor’s of business administration from Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, and is a chartered financial analyst. He brings 15 years of equity research knowledge to the role, with both independent and bank-owned dealer experience.

Tory appointed trustee at Allied

Allied Properties Real Estate Investment Trust (AP-UN-T) announced Jennifer Tory has been appointed as a trustee.

Having started her career with Royal Bank of Canada in 1978, Tory held successively senior leadership roles, including as group head, personal and commercial banking, responsible for RBC’s banking businesses in Canada and the Caribbean for three years. 

Tory served as the chief administrative officer of RBC from May 2017 until her retirement on Dec. 31, 2019, responsible for brand, marketing, citizenship, communications, procurement and real estate functions globally.

Tory completed her ICD.D designation through the Institute of Corporate Directors at the Rotman School of Management.

Wiener replaces Samuel as Trez director

Trez Capital Senior Mortgage Investment Corporation (TZS-T) has accepted the resignation of Gary M. Samuel as a director and appointed Kenneth R. Wiener to the board.

Wiener was a partner at Goodmans LLP until his retirement in December 2017, and has over 30 years of experience in advising public companies and their boards of directors. He has extensive experience in securities law, with a focus on corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions and corporate governance.

New managers in Winnipeg planning dept.

The City of Winnipeg has announced appointments to two senior positions in its planning, property and development department. David Jopling is the city’s new urban planning and design manager, while Alana Crocker has taken over as manager of development and inspections.

Crocker had been promoted into the role as interim manager of development and inspections about a year ago before being made permanent in July.

Jopling was hired from private-sector consulting firm WSP, where he worked for eight years, most recently as manager of planning, landscape architecture and urban design.