Two of the industry’s most high-profile non-bank lending figures have quit.
Michael Zerda (pictured), European director of debt investment and special situations at LaSalle Investment Management, is leaving to become a managing director at Blackstone Real Estate Debt Strategies, while Rawle Howard, head of originations for BlackRock’s European real estate debt group, is leaving to become head of European real estate debt at Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board.
Zerda will work under senior managing director Rob Harper, who runs BREDS in Europe.
He will start in early 2016 and replaces Peter Lennon, who left BREDS in March to join pop-up retail start-up Appear Here. Zerda joined LaSalle in 2009 from MGPA, now BlackRock.
Joseph Pedlow, previously managing director at BREDS, also left the firm in June and is understood to now be considering other opportunities within real estate lending.
BREDS is about to launch its third fund, which is expected to total close to the $4bn (£2.6bn) it raised last time around. The fund will issue mezzanine and whole loans across global markets.
Howard is due to start at CPPIB in mid-November. He has been at BlackRock since leaving Lehman Brothers following the bank’s collapse in 2008.
The Canadian pension fund is looking to build up a real estate lending book across a variety of risk profiles – senior, mezzanine and preferred equity. He will work with Martin Healey, CPPIB’s managing director and head of private real estate debt.
CPPIB wants to compete directly with the likes of BlackRock and sovereign wealth lenders such as GIC.
david.hatcher@estatesgazette.com
