Savills Investment Management (“Savills IM”), the international real estate investment manager, has announced a number of appointments to its senior management team to position the company for further global expansion.

In recognition of the importance of Asia Pacific to Savills IM, Chairman and Global Chief Executive Officer Justin O’Connor will be relocating to Hong Kong to drive growth in the region where he will also be CEO Asia Pacific. The Asia Pacific region, where Savills IM currently has five offices, is an important part of the firm’s long term strategy and this move will build upon the winning of new business in recent years.

Nick Cooper, who joined Savills IM in January 2017 as a Senior Advisor, has been appointed as Deputy Chairman. He will also have oversight of Global Investor Services focusing on client relationships, especially the top global investors and consultants.

Giuseppe Oriani, currently Head of Italy and responsible for increasing AuM in the country to over EUR 2.5bn today, becomes CEO for Europe. He will lead the firm’s 13 office and 250 employee European platform.

New Head of Country appointments have been made to continue driving Savills IM’s growth in the strategically important markets of the UK and Germany.

• Harry de Ferry Foster, Fund Manager of the EUR 1.4bn Charities Property Fund, and Jon Crossfield, Head of Strategic Partnerships in Europe, have been appointed as Co-Heads for the UK in addition to their current responsibilities.
• Carolina von Groddeck, who in recent years has been overseeing liquidation of the EUR 6.8bn German SEB mutual funds, becomes Head of Germany.

Justin O’Connor, Global CEO and Chairman, Savills Investment Management, commented:

“Our strong growth over the last five years, increasing from EUR 4.2bn AuM and 8 offices in 2013 to over EUR 16.6bn AuM and 18 offices today, has led us to broaden our senior management team to promote continued global expansion. These changes will allow us to further build on our strong global platform and I look forward to leading the next stage of the development of our business.”

Savills IM transacted EUR 5.5 billion in 2017, including EUR 2.95 billion of disposals and EUR 2.55 billion of acquisitions. The firm saw total activity of EUR 4.5 billion in Europe and EUR 1 billion in Asia. The company currently has over 300 employees in 18 offices.