Protego Real Estate Investors has strengthened its European team through the appointment of two senior fund and assets managers - David Turner as Investment Director Europe, and Maarten Vermeulen as European Asset Manager.
The appointments form part of Protego's continued focus on the growth of its European operations and follow the recent announcement of its European Real Estate joint venture with Challenger, the Australian financial services business and the planned launch of its Nordic Retail Fund. Both David and Maarten will work from Protego's London office.
David Turner
David joins from Arlington Property Investors and will be responsible for overseeing all investment activity in Europe outside of the UK.
At Arlington, David was a Fund Manager, responsible for investment mandates from Alecta, a large Swedish institutional investor with assets under management of over £21 billion and Barclays Life, the life and pensions arm of Barclays, and managed property assets in excess of £650 million.
Maarten Vermeulen
Maarten, formerly National Director - Benelux acquisition and asset management at LaSalle Investment Management in Amsterdam, joins Protego as European Asset Manager. While at LaSalle, Maarten was responsible for managing assets for clients including the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, LaSalle Euro Growth II and several Dutch private wealth funds.
Prior to working at LaSalle's, Maarten was Head of Asset Management at ABN Amro Bouwfonds Asset Management, where he oversaw a £813 million (€1.2 billion) portfolio, and Senior Real Estate Finance Consultant ECORYS Kolpron Finance in the Netherlands.
Maarten is also a member of the Shadow Communications Board for RICS and was Secretary and co-founder of NEVAP, a Dutch real estate management platform, founded in 2004.
Protego first expanded operations into Europe in March 2006, with the opening of an office in Rotterdam, overseen by Managing Director, Peter de Haas.
Commenting on the appointments, Iain Reid, Chief Executive at Protego, said, "Our expansion into Europe was a pivotal point for Protego's development last year. We are continuing to grow our European operations, and were recently appointed by Challenger to invest over £665 million into continental Europe over the next 12 months.
"With the launch of our Nordic Retail Fund, and the first of the acquisitions for the Challenger mandate completed, the addition of both David and Maarten to the team will be invaluable as we progress both these and other projects into 2007 and beyond."
Source: Tavistock
