Real estate fund manager Centuria Capital has made a series of appointments, including the former chief operating officer of an advice firm.
Karen Brown joins the firm from Sentry Advice, a subsidiary of WT Financial with offices nationwide, where she worked as chief operating officer for three years and previously as head of wealth solutions.
Prior to this, she worked as a state manager for Grant Samuels Fund Management (GSFM) and for Challenger.
At Centuria, she has been appointed as the distribution manager for Western Australia and South Australia where she will be responsible for promoting the firm’s unlisted property funds to the intermediary channel.
Meanwhile, Matthew Young has been appointed as a strategic partnership manager in NSW where he will be the primary contact for asset consultants, research houses and licensees specialising in private market assets.
He previously worked as a state manager at Cromwell Property Group, and as a regional manager at Robeco for eight years.
Ben Harrop, Centuria head of distribution, said: “We warmly welcome Matthew and Karen to the Centuria fold and, more specifically, to our distribution team. Matthew’s deep market experience with asset consultants as well as domestic and international institutional investors will add strength to our relationships and capability to the team.
“Karen brings a wealth of experience, particularly across financial advice licensees where she has strong knowledge on advice implementation and relationships with investment advisers.”
In its half-year financial results last month, the firm said it had $21.1 billion in assets under management across Australia and New Zealand driven by growth in its real estate finance business Centuria Bass Capital and industrial platform.
Jason Huljich, Centuria joint CEO, said, “Alternative real estate markets, namely real estate finance and agriculture, provided strong growth throughout the period, benefiting from unlisted wholesale and retail investor appetite for emerging market investment opportunities.
“We believe these sectors, in particular, will continue to expand in the near to mid-term driven by constrained lending criteria from traditional finance markets and Australia’s expanding population increasing demand for fresh produce.”
