Macquarie Goodman has promoted Rob Wilkinson to replace Akeler chief executive James Cole to run its European business parks division.
Cole, who worked at Akeler for eight years, resigned from the Australian fund manager last Friday. Wilkinson is currently corporate development director at Arlington Securities.
Cole’s resignation is the first high-profile departure from Macquarie Goodman since its subsidiary Arlington Securities bought rival Akeler for £650m in November. He had been lined up for one of the four senior roles in Macquarie Goodman’s European arm. However, Cole said the size of the company was “one of the considerations” behind his resignation.
“Macquarie Goodman offered me an attractive job but I decided not to move ahead with the new company,” he said. “It would be difficult to go from running a business to running a single stream within a business. I have worked before at big companies and I much prefer smaller firms.”
Macquarie Goodman’s other three European divisions are headed by Danny Peeters for logistics, Jim Johnston for UK business parks and John O’Connor for fund management. They all report to Jeff Pulsford.
