The UNITE Group plc, the UK's leading developer and manager of student accommodation, announces the appointment of Mark Creedy as Managing Director, Fund Management and Caroline Mallin as Communications Director. Both are new roles.
As Managing Director of Fund Management, Mark will be responsible for overseeing the management of the UNITE UK Student Accommodation Fund ("USAF"), the largest specialist student accommodation fund in the UK and UNITE's other joint ventures. USAF comprises an £877 million portfolio of assets located across the UK which has continued to deliver strong reservations, with 97% of bed spaces now occupied for the 2009/10 academic year, and like-for-like rental growth of 10%. In addition, Mark will play an instrumental role within the senior team as UNITE continues to focus on the evolution of its business model as a developer and co-investing asset manager.
Mark has been working with UNITE since January 2009 as a consultant to establish best practice procedures and explore opportunities for enhancing its fund and asset management business. Before joining UNITE, his previous roles included being the Managing Director of Legal and General Property, responsible for £12 billion of property funds under management in 16 separate funds, and Managing Director of Chartwell Land, a subsidiary of Kingfisher Plc.
Caroline brings with her wide communications experience from senior roles in the property, construction and financial services industries. A former journalist, she was Group Communications Director for global commercial property advisor DTZ and, more recently, Internal Communications Director at Legal & General. She was Head of Strategic Communications at Railtrack for a number of years during which she saw through the organisation's transition and rebranding as Network Rail.
Caroline's primary focus at UNITE will be to devise and implement an integrated internal and external communications strategy to enhance further the understanding of UNITE's business strategy and reputation with key stakeholders including UNITE employees, investors, politicians, media and universities.
Mark Allan, UNITE's Chief Executive commented: "I am delighted to welcome Mark and Caroline to the executive team at such an exciting point in UNITE's evolution. Having recently raised £82 million through an equity issue, we are extremely well placed to take advantage of compelling development opportunities in the market, and particularly London, and we continue to work alongside universities and our partners to meet the chronic shortage of good quality purpose built student accommodation in convenient city locations.
"Both Mark and Caroline bring significant experience, knowledge and complementary skills to UNITE as we continue to develop our business and further consolidate and capitalise on our market leading position."
Source: FD
