London headquartered European real estate investment and asset manager Valesco has appointed Derek Williams as managing director.
With over 30 years of global real estate and infrastructure experience, most recently as managing director, business development for Edmond de Rothschild’s UK real estate business, Williams will be responsible for Valesco’s institutional client base as it looks to significantly increase assets under management.
His appointment closely follows that of Ross McCaskill, who has joined as chief financial officer, and adds further weight to Valesco’s senior leadership team.
Based in London, Williams will be responsible for managing the company’s existing investor relationships as well as attracting new capital partners and supporting CEO Shiraz Jiwa in growing Valesco’s footprint and shaping the strategic direction of the business, including the launch of new investment products.
He was previously at Edmond de Rothschild, where he was head of UK commercial fund management and managing director, business development UK, overseeing the development of its commercial real estate offering.
Prior to this, he was head of investment management, EMEA and head of capital, EMEA and Americas at Global Student Accommodation, where he formed and managed the investment management and capital raising functions in Europe, growing AUM from $100 million to $1.5 billion in 18 months.
Shiraz Jiwa, Founder and CEO of The Valesco Group, commented: “Only by truly understanding the risk / return appetite of the capital allocator can we achieve our ambition of significant AUM growth combined with differentiated outperformance. Derek is a seasoned, multidisciplinary real estate and private equity professional with a rare combination of ‘through the cycle’ investor and investment experience. He is ideally placed to curate products through the lens of the client, ultimately ensuring total alignment with our growing and increasingly global LP base. Furthermore, having been an integral part of the Global Student Accommodation early success story, his entrepreneurial nous makes him a perfect fit with the Valesco ethos.”
Derek Williams added: “As institutional investors become more sophisticated and the tools to evaluate performance more accessible, so managers are increasingly being held to account. Valesco’s reputation and success to date has positioned it as a partner of choice for capital seeking to take advantage of current market dislocation, and this is a rare opportunity to build out what is already a hugely successful client servicing platform.”
Last month Valesco announced the appointment of former Ballymore Asset Management Finance Director, Ross McCaskill, as Chief Financial Officer. Ross, who will be based in London, brings two decades of real estate and private equity sector experience and will oversee Valesco’s finance and accounting function. He will be responsible for heading up the Group’s finance strategy, including reporting and risk management, as well as building out the operational framework to optimise scalability thereby supporting the strategic growth of the business.
