Megan Walters has left real estate services firm JLL to join German financial services company Allianz.
She was head of research Asia Pacific at JLL and will be stepping up to become global head of research at Allianz Real Estate.
Reporting to chief investment officer Olivier Teran, Walters officially came on board on 1 November.
Allianz did not specify where she will be based, as she currently lives in Singapore but will move to “Europe”.
Walters is the latest in a series of high-profile recruits for the division.
Going for growth
Alongside opening offices in London, Stockholm and Luxembourg; Allianz Real Estate has made five other significant hires this year.
In the US, Michael Cale was named co-head of debt investments, having previously worked at Voya Investment Management; with Karen Horstmann joining as head of equity acquisitions from Norges’s Bank Real Estate Management.
In London, Shripal Shah left independent financial risk advisor JCRA to become head of debt origination; while Jenny Lindholm became director Nordics based in Stockholm having joined from Swedish real estate company Nyfosa.
Key appointments were also made within the Asia Pacific team; including Chiang Wei Ng, head of asset management, and Charles Kwak, head of transaction services
Hitting milestones
The chief executive of Allianz Real Estate, Francois Trausch, described 2019 as “an active year” for the business.
“We recently announced our AUM had reached €67.1bn (£57.8bn, $74.5bn), and we achieved the first milestones of our third-party ambitions.
“This was achieved through launching our European debt fund and announcing the first equity deal in which we have acquired and will manage an asset on behalf of a joint venture including a third-party institutional investor wishing to invest alongside Allianz.
“But growth cannot be sustained without the necessary infrastructure, which is why we have opened three new offices this year, bringing our total to 21, and hired a range of industry experts around the world,” Trausch added.
