Several of Aberdeen Standard Investments’ division heads and senior directors have left in a restructuring of the asset manager’s real estate business.
Last week, EG reported that Andrew Creighton, global head of real estate investment management, will leave after almost a decade.
Paolo Alonzi, global head of real estate business finance and strategy, is also leaving after more than 18 years at the company. Alonzi and Creighton were both part of the global real estate management team, a division established last year as part of a broader restructuring under head of global real assets Neil Slater.
Ed Crockett, head of UK residential investment, will leave in January, after 15 years at the company. Crockett led the department for five years and grew assets to £1.3bn across 14 funds. Acquisitions struck during lockdown included deals in Barking, Stratford and Leeds, with expansion into Ireland this year.
Also in the residential investment team, Corrine Stevens, deputy fund manager has decided to leave the company. Stevens worked at Aberdeen for five years, with previous experience at Grosvenor Group.
John Lee, head of value add, has also chosen to retire and will also leave during the first half of 2022.
The departures come as part of a restructure of real estate at the Edinburgh-based fund manager, which this August brought its real estate and infrastructure division together as a single real assets team.
The real estate team has undergone a number of changes in recent years. In 2020, Aberdeen “simplified” its leadership team, losing further roles as UK head of real estate Mike Hannigan prepared to leave.
The global real estate management team was established with a trio of directors reporting to Neil Slater. At the time, Slater said the repositioning would help the company to target new areas of growth.
Two of those roles have since been cut, leaving just Anne Breen, head of real estate investment strategy. In September, the company recruited Tom Stenhouse, former Patrizia UK managing director, to head up its real estate strategic capital arm, reporting directly to Slater.
A spokesperson said: “In August, we confirmed that we had brought together our real estate and infrastructure capabilities under a single real assets franchise to enable us to leverage our expertise across the built environment.
“There will be no change to investment processes as a result of these changes. We believe that this evolution to our structure will allow us to better align with the evolving needs of our clients and the pace and scale of change across the industry now and in the future. It also continues to underline the fundamental importance of delivering investment performance to meet our clients’ objectives.”
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