M7 adds industry veterans to board

M7 Real Estate has appointed Sylvain Fortier and Melinda Knatchbull as independent non-executive directors. Fortier was formerly chief investment and innovation officer of Ivanhoé Cambridge. He has also previously held board roles at French REIT Gecina and at Otera Capital, where he served as chair. Knatchbull is chief financial officer at Sellar. She previously spent more than a decade at Schroders, including eight as chief operating officer for real estate. Her role included chairing the organisation’s real estate operating, real estate investment risk, and real estate valuation committees, as well as being a member of the global investment committee. At M7, Fortier will chair the board, while Knatchbull will chair the audit, risk and compliance committee. Oxford Properties Group acquired M7 in 2021 as part of its ambition to amass a European logistics portfolio “of scale”. The business continues to be led by chief executive David Ebbrell and the existing management team. James Boadle, senior vice president for Europe at Oxford Properties, said the two new appointments bring “decades of institutional real estate investment experience to support the platform’s strategic growth ambitions and further strengthen M7’s board”. Boadle added: “The acquisition of M7 has given us the additional reach and on-the-ground presence to aggregate a market-leading pan-European logistics, industrial and retail warehouse portfolio deploying capital at scale in a high-conviction sector for Oxford and capitalise on strong occupier demand. “We look forward to working alongside Sylvain and Melinda as we continue to deploy Oxford’s capital through the platform and support M7 in attracting institutional capital.” Ebbrell said: “Together with Oxford, we have strong ambitions to continue to grow M7’s market leading platform by bringing new capital partners to our business as we continue to source high quality investment opportunities within our chosen asset classes. “The appointment of directors of the calibre of Sylvain and Melinda to our board underlines that ambition and is a testament to what we have achieved at M7 to date.”