Tristan Fund and Queensway Expand Point A Hotels Platform with Acquisition in Edinburgh

Tristan Capital Partners’ latest opportunistic fund European Property Investors Special Opportunities 6 (EPISO 6) and Queensway have completed the purchase of a 63,195 sqft office property on St. Andrew Square in Edinburgh, Scotland.

 

The deal will mark the first add-on investment to the Fund’s Point A Hotel platform, held in a Joint Venture with Queensway, subject to planning. The transaction will expand the footprint of the platform to 12 locations across the UK and Ireland.

 

The Fund acquired a majority stake in the Point A platform in 2022, which at the time comprised a portfolio of 10 operating and 1 development in the UK and Ireland.

 

The latest acquisition in Edinburgh will see Queensway develop and deliver for the Joint Venture a Point A hotel on St. Andrew Square, a prime location in the Scottish capital. St. Andrew Square is a historically significant public square, centrally located in the city’s New Town area.

 

The shareholders have committed significant additional equity to fund this phase of growth for the platform with a particular focus on strategic locations in London.

 

Kristian Smyth, Managing Director, Investments at Tristan Capital Partners, said: “St. Andrew Square is a marquee location in one of the strongest hotel markets in Europe. We believe the addition of another Point A in the Scottish capital to complement our existing offer in Haymarket will be a positive for both our platform and the city of Edinburgh.

 

“Our stated ambition when we acquired the platform was to materially expand our hotel footprint in strategic locations and we are actively focused on delivering on this objective with substantial capital available to deploy. We have identified several London boroughs which are of particular interest and are engaged in dialogue with agents and owners of existing hotels or appropriate office assets suited to hotel conversion.”

 

Naushad Jivraj, CEO, Queensway, said: “We are thrilled to build on our existing partnership with Tristan Capital Partners’ fund and continue the expansion of the platform. St Andrew’s Square in Edinburgh is a prime city centre location with excellent economic and social activity. The acquired site will be redeveloped to provide consumers with a new budget boutique offering located in the heart of the city close to key attractions.

 

“Under the management of Queensway, the Point A Hotels brand is continuing to develop a highquality product at great value, generating positive customer feedback resulting in strong occupancy levels.

 

“Our existing Point A Hotel in Edinburgh has been very well received by consumers and is one of the strongest performing hotels in our portfolio. We hope that this new project will provide much needed additional capacity for which we see significant customer demand.”

 

Simon West, Fund Manager, Patrizia, added: “On behalf of Patrizia Hanover PUT, we are very pleased to have completed on the sale of the St Andrews Sq. The disposal generates liquidity for the fund to focus its attentions on value adding decarbonisation projects in the remaining portfolio, delivering both ESG and performance benefits.”

 

PISO 6 was advised by Brodies, Ogier, BCLP, Workman, Savills, Amicus and PwC.

 

Patrizia was advised by JLL and Burness Paull.

Olivia Griffiths

COO and Chief People Officer
+44 (0)20 3463 8900

Olivia is COO and Chief People Officer, responsible for overseeing the operations of the firm, jointly with Jo Rothwell, as well as HR, Marketing and Communications, IT, Facilities and Administration. 

She previously held the role of Managing Director of Operations, having joined Tristan originally in 2016 as Head of Marketing and Communications.

 

Prior to Tristan, Olivia was a Director at CNC Communications & Network Consulting, a strategic consultancy owned by Publicis Groupe.

 

Olivia previously worked at Man Group plc (Man), an alternative investment manager and started her career at M&G, the UK and European fund management arm of Prudential plc.

 

Olivia has a BA (Hons) degree in Public Relations from Bournemouth University.

Ed Miller

Executive Director

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Edward joined Tristan as an Executive Director in the Investment Team in February 2023.
Edward was previously Director of Development at Henderson Park and holds a Real Estate Investment Management degree from UWE Bristol.

Simon Martin

Senior Partner – Chief Investment Strategist and Head of Research
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Simon brings a 30 year track record of international real estate investment management to Tristan.

Simon has worked with Founder and Executive Chairman/Chief Investment Officer Ric Lewis for over 20 years and helped found Curzon Global Partners in London in 1999.

 

Simon set up the firm’s strategy function and led the research team as it grew globally (as part of AEW). He continues to focus on developing Tristan’s research-led investment approach.

 

He works closely with the firm’s investment and asset management teams, and actively participates in the portfolio management process. 

 

He has served on the Investment Committee and has worked on every deal the firm has executed since inception.

 

Simon also works closely on a day-to-day basis with the client development team to ensure that clients are kept fully apprised of developments in the market and the implications for strategy.

 

Prior to joining Curzon Global Partners, he headed DTZ’s Fund Management and Investment Strategy Group and worked for CB Hillier Parker’s investment research team.

 

Simon has also held a series of academic posts working as a Researcher at Cambridge University (Property Research Unit) and at Kingston University (Real Estate Faculty) in London. Simon was latterly the CBRE Professor of Real Estate Finance at the Henley Business School and still lectures occasionally at a number of universities, including at Cass Business School and Saïd Business School.

Ben Newman

Senior Partner – CCP 5 LL Portfolio Manager
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Ben is a Senior Partner at Tristan and serves as CCP 5 LL’s Portfolio Manager, responsible for strategy, management and execution of the Fund. 

Before assuming this role, Ben led the asset management of both the Core Plus and Opportunistic fund series for Tristan for seven years.

 

Prior to joining Tristan, Ben was an Executive Director at UBS AG and Head of Global Property Fund (Asia and Europe) within the Global Real Estate division of UBS Global Asset Management. In this role, Ben was responsible for the portfolio management of UK, Continental Europe and Asian real estate portfolios with a value of over $5 billion.

 

Previously, Ben was a Director at Curzon Global Partners where he was responsible for a European portfolio of circa €1 billion.

 

Prior to joining Curzon, Ben was a Vice President with Heitman Financial LLC where he was responsible for the asset management of a portfolio of standing and ground-up developments in the Czech Republic and Poland.

 

Before joining Heitman in 1999, Ben worked for Haslemere Estates (Rodamco UK) where he worked on asset management and acquisition of all property sectors throughout the UK.

 

Ben is a Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (MRICS) and graduated in BSc (Hons) Real Estate Management from Oxford Brookes.

James Brodie

Managing Director
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James is a Managing Director in the Portfolio and Asset Management team at Tristan Capital Partners and has over 20 years’ experience working across various European jurisdictions.

Prior to joining Tristan, James worked for Europa Capital LLP as a Director working on both the pan-European Value-Add Funds and the Europa Emerging Europe Fund. He previously worked for Poseidon Group developing and asset managing retail assets across South East Europe. James started his career at King Sturge in London.

 

James has gained exposure to a variety of European markets (United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Spain, Italy, Bulgaria, Nordics, Romania and a number of other Eastern European markets) across the retail, office, student and logistic sectors.

 

James is a Member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (MRICS) and graduated with a BA (Hons) from Bristol University before completing a Diploma in Surveying from the College of Estate Management in Reading.

Yassine Berkane

Managing Director
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Yassine Berkane started his real estate career in 2009 and is now a Managing Director working in the Asset Management team at Tristan Capital Partners having joined in June 2019.

His role is focused on Southern Europe (Italy, Portugal, Spain) and French speaking countries (France, Belgium, Switzerland). He is based in Paris.

 

Yassine was previously a Vice-President in the asset management platform of Oaktree Capital in London.

 

He graduated from the French business school ESCP Europe.

Beatrice Freiberger

Executive Director
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Beatrice is Executive Director in the Portfolio and Asset Management team. She works on multi-sector opportunistic and core plus investments with a focus on Germany.

Prior to joining Tristan in 2018, Beatrice worked at Tectum in Berlin, focussing on healthcare assets in Germany and at TIAA-CREF/ latterly Nuveen in London, covering investment and asset management in various asset classes across Germany, France, Portugal and the UK.

 

Beatrice has over 10 years’ experience and is a member of the RICS. She holds a Masters in International Business Administration from the Vienna University of Economics and Business and an MSc in Real Estate from the University of Reading.

Constantin Plenge

Managing Director
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Constantin is Managing Director for Investments, Germany, with responsibility for investing across all real estate sectors in Germany on behalf of Tristan’s Funds.

Constantin joined from ARB Investment Partners where he was heading acquisitions and portfolio management of long-term value add and opportunistic investments across various real estate asset classes in Berlin, as well as in other German and European markets with a total AUM of €1 billion.

 

Prior to joining ARB Investment Partners, Constantin was a Managing Partner with Capricornus Capital Management where he was responsible for the operating partner business with Morgan Stanley and Och-Ziff, which made investments in excess of €400 million.

 

Constantin graduated in Law from Humboldt University in 2005 and holds a PhD in Law.

Thibault Ancely

Managing Director

+44 (0)20 3976 11490

Thibault is Managing Director for Investments, France, with responsibility for investing across all real estate sectors in France on behalf of Tristan’s Funds.

Thibault joined from Gecina where he was Executive Director, Investments and Developments and in charge of all development operations. Prior to joining Gecina, Thibault worked for TIAA Henderson Real Estate France, Paris, where has was Head of France for a number of years, leading the activities of the French platform of TIAA dedicated to real estate investment and asset management.

 

Thibault holds an MBA from ESSEC and is a visiting professor at ESSEC MBA (International Property Market).

Kristian Smyth

Managing Director
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Kristian is a Managing Director in the Investment Team at Tristan Capital Partners with a significant track record in European real estate investment.

Kristian is Head of Alternatives (Hospitality; PBSA; Senior Living; Regulated Housing). He is also responsible for investments in UK and Ireland. Kristian joined Tristran in 2017 and has been responsible for in excess of €2.3 billion in investments.

 

Prior to joining Tristan, Kristian spent five years at CPPIB – Real Estate Investment, where he was focused on the acquisition and asset management of real estate across Europe. During his time in CPPIB, he was involved in direct asset acquisitions, platform investments and PIPE deals, successfully completing in excess of €3.0 billion in transactions.

 

Kristian has also worked with Moor Park Capital Partners in their London investment team. While at Moor Park Capital Partners, he worked on over €450 million in transactions. Prior to Moor Park Capital Partners, he worked with the investment team for the Orco Property Group’s Endurance Fund based in Prague, Czech Republic.

 

Kristian graduated with a first-class honours degree in Business and Legal Studies from University College Dublin and holds an MSc in Real Estate Investment from Cass Business School. Kristian is an Irish citizen.

Kick van der Wel

Managing Director
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Kick is Managing Director in the Investment team at Tristan Capital Partners. His responsibilities include the Dutch market, as well as other key European geographies. Having joined Tristan in 2012, he has been involved in a range of acquisitions across Europe, contributing to all stages of new investments.

Prior to joining Tristan, Kick completed his Masters in Real Estate Finance at Cambridge University. Kick also holds a Master’s degree from the University of Amsterdam, a Bachelor degree (BBE) in real estate and has studied history.

Kick is a Dutch citizen and speaks Dutch and English.

Luc Boschmans

Managing Director
+44 (0)203 967 1134
Luc oversees the hospitality investments on behalf of Tristan’s funds, bringing 24 years of experience in the European hotel industry.

Previously, Luc worked for 10 years at Archer Hotel Capital and its successor, Host Hotels & Resorts, as a Director in charge of the asset management of a €2bn luxury hotel portfolio across Europe. Prior to Host Hotels & Europe, Luc led the hotel operations for a portfolio on behalf of Blackstone in France and another portfolio in Germany for Lone Star Funds. Luc has also gained substantial operational hotel experience from hotel operating companies including Hilton and Hyatt.

 

Luc holds a Hotel Management Diploma from the Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne in Switzerland as well as an MBA of the Open University. Luc has been a CHAM, Certified Hotel Asset Manager, since 2019 and a board member of HAMA Europe (Hospitality Asset Manager Association).

 

Luc is a Belgian national and speaks Dutch, German, French and English.

Tania La Menza

Executive Director
+44 (0)20 3976 1136

Tania is an Executive Director in the Investments team working across different jurisdictions. She leads Tristan’s investments in Iberia, as well as in life sciences and data centres in Europe.

Since joining Tristan in November 2018 as an Associate, Tania has worked on multiple transactions across different assets classes, including office, logistics, residential, and jurisdictions including Spain, Germany and the UK with a total GAV of c.€1.5bn.

 

Prior to joining Tristan, Tania worked for Goldman Sachs’ Real Estate M&A team based in London covering public European companies, and in the Real Estate Management team in Madrid, overseeing c. €1bn balance sheet exposure of real estate assets and non-performing loan portfolios across Spain.

 

Tania holds a dual degree in Economics from Carlos III University (Madrid, Spain) and State University of New York (New York, USA) and a Masters in Finance from London Business School.

Luis Miguel Bueno

Senior Advisor (Spain)
+44 (0)20 3463 8900
Luis is Senior Director of Tristan Capital Partners in Spain.

He has over 30 years of experience in the real estate and construction sector. Formerly he was Country Head and Senior Advisor of Autonomy Capital, managing its real estate activities in Spain. Prior to this he was Managing Director of Tishman Speyer responsible of investment acquisitions and developments in Spain and Italy. He also spent ten years at Heron International, a pan European investment group, where he was Executive Director for Spain and Portugal.

 

Luis has been Board Member of several Spanish real estate companies and external advisor for various Spanish and International companies focused in international projects. He is also member of the executive coaching team of ESADE Business School.

 

Luis begun his real estate career at ACS (formerly Ocisa), a major Spanish construction group focusing on infrastructures and services.

 

Luis received his Law degree from UCM.

Cristina Boura

Executive Director
+352 27 85 95 00

Cristina is Executive Director in Tristan’s Legal team, based in  Luxembourg.

Having worked at Tristan since 2013, her role involves overseeing the day-to-day operations of Tristan’s fund structures, ensuring compliance with good governance practices, as well as managing and coordinating the legal aspects of the firm’s transactions.

 

Cristina holds a Master’s Degree in Law from the Faculty of Law of the University of Coimbra, Portugal and is admitted to the Portuguese Bar.

Owen Jones

Executive Director

+44 (0)20 3463 8900

Owen is Executive Director in the Debt Investment Team, with responsibility for the structuring, execution and asset management of the platform’s debt investments.

Prior to joining Tristan, Owen spent over five years in the real estate finance team at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP, acting for both sponsors and lenders on the delivery of complex investment and development finance transactions, secured against real estate situated in both the UK and continental Europe.

 

Prior to joining Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP, Owen worked for two years at Eversheds LLP in London, primarily advising on the origination and restructuring of debt investments for major financial institutions.

 

During his time in private practice, Owen spent eight months seconded to LaSalle Investment Management where he principally advised the business as to the implementation of its pan-European whole-loan strategy. He was also seconded to the restructuring arm of a major UK clearing bank, where he coordinated functions of the bank’s disposal of €1.6 billion of non-performing debt.

Sam Harmon

Executive Director

+44 (0)20 3463 8900

Sam Harmon is Executive Director in the Debt Origination team at Tristan Capital Partners.

In his role, Sam raises debt to support the acquisition of assets and portfolios across Europe in all property sectors for Tristan Funds, as well as Fund Level financing and advising on interest rate hedging strategies.

 

Sam joined Tristan in 2022 from Cromwell Property Group. He started his career at Barclays Corporate and Investment bank, as a lender of real estate debt to funds, PLCs and private clients.

 

Sam holds a first in Engineering from Loughborough University.

Jennifer Dowding

Associate Director, HR

Andrea Pittaluga

Managing Director – Head of Debt Finance

+44 (0)20 3463 8900

Andrea is Head of Debt Finance. His role is focused on sourcing debt for new investments and restructuring existing loans.
Andrea brings with him a wealth of experience, most recently as an ED at CBRE Capital Advisors in the Structured Finance team. Prior to that he worked at Lloyds Bank, StormHarbour Securities and S&P.

ESG committee members

Read more about our ESG committee:

Jean-Philippe Blangy (committee chair)

Senior Partner, Head of ESG and Head of Asset Management

Ben Newman

Senior Partner, CCP5 LL Portfolio Manager

Olivia Griffiths

COO and Chief People Officer

Nik Haigh

Co-Head, Client Relations

Kick van der Wel

Managing Director, Investments

Ed Miller

Executive Director, Investments

Investments Developments

Victoria Yakubenko

Director, Asset Management

Martina Bartek

ESG Advisor

Stefano Capacci

External Advisor, Longevity Partners

Chloé Jouvelot

Senior Analyst

Simon Martin

Senior Partner – Chief Investment Strategist and Head of Research
Investment Committee Member

Ben Newman

Senior Partner 

Portfolio ManageR, CCP 5 LL

Anita Jerkovic

Managing Director

Deputy Portfolio Manager, E Series

James Brodie

Managing Director
Portfolio & Asset Management

Yassine Berkane

Managing Director
Portfolio & Asset Management

Beatrice Freiberger

Executive Director
Portfolio & Asset Management

Constantin Plenge

Managing Director
Investments, Germany

Thibault Ancely

Managing Director
Investments, France

Kristian Smyth

Managing Director

Investments, Alternatives & UK

Kick van der Wel

Managing Director
Investments, Benelux & Nordics

Luc Boschmans

Managing Director
Investments, Hospitality

Tania La Menza

Executive Director

Investments, Spain & Portugal

Ed Miller

Executive Director

Investments Developments

Luis Miguel Bueno

Senior Director (Spain)

Doug Poutasse

Senior Advisor (USA)
+1 617 763 7970
Doug is a Senior Adviser to Tristan and an Investment Committee Member. Doug retired from his position as Head of Strategy and Research at real estate advisor BentallGreenOak (BGO), in December 2020. He now serves as an independent member of three BGO client investment committees. He also serves as an independent director of NewTower Trust Company, which serves as the trust company for BGO’s MEPT fund and as manager for its BGO Diversified Fund. These are all positions of independent fiduciary responsibility and are all focused on North American investments.

He has previously served as Executive Director of NCREIF and as the Chief Investment Strategist of AEW Capital Management (USA). With over 30 years of experience as an economic analyst and forecaster, Doug has served as an important member on the Investment Committee of all funds created by Curzon / AEW with Ric Lewis and Simon Martin since the creation of Curzon Global Partners in 1999.

 

He chaired AEW’s Investment Policy Group and was a voting member of its Investment Committee. As the former head of AEW Research, Doug was responsible for developing a number of the analytical tools now applied to the European markets by AEW Europe.

 

Prior to joining AEW in 1991, Doug was with F.W. Dodge, where he managed real estate and construction forecasting. He has also been manager of Metropolitan Forecasting for DRI/McGraw-Hill. Doug is a past President and member of the Board of Directors of NCREIF and was the Chair of the Real Estate Information Standards Board from 2007 to 2010.

 

He has also been an active member of the Urban Land Institute and the Pension Real Estate Association, which awarded him the Graaskamp Award in 2005 for his high-quality research in the area of institutional investment in real estate. He is a graduate of Harvard University (B.A.).

Claudia Cronshaw

Director

+44 (0)20 3463 8900

Claudia is responsible for the firm’s marketing and communications.

Having joined Tristan in May 2022, she has 20 years experience in media relations, marketing and brand building, employee communications and stakeholder relations. The majority of her experience has been in the real estate sector.

 

Prior to working at Tristan, Claudia has advised on communications and marketing at Colliers International, Essex County Council, and boutique leisure property advisors Davis Coffer Lyons and Coffer Corporate Leisure. She began her career at the strategic communications consultancy,  FTI Consulting (formerly Tamesis and Financial Dynamics).

 

Claudia graduated in Philosophy from King’s College, London.

Scott Johnston

Director

+44 (0)20 3463 8900

Scott is a Director in the Client Relations team, having joined Tristan in June 2020.

Prior to joining Tristan, Scott worked in Australia as an Investment Analyst at APN Property Group and as a Senior Consultant within Ernst & Young’s real estate transaction advisory team.

 

Scott holds a BAppSc (Property & Valuation) from RMIT University and is a Chartered Surveyor (MRICS).

Alice Alexandre

Executive Director
+44 (0)20 3463 8900
Alice Alexandre is an Executive Director of Client Relations responsible for existing and prospective client relationships. Alice also supports the team on all aspects of the client relationship management and fundraising process, including due diligence and onboarding. She primarily works with European institutional clients and family offices.

Alice joined Tristan in 2017 after six years in Rothschild & Co’s real estate financial advisory team in London. She has a First Class Honours degree from the University of Edinburgh and is a French and British citizen.

Adam Smith

Co-Head of Client Relations
+44 (0)20 3463 8900

Adam Smith is Co-Head of Client Relations responsible for existing and prospective client relationships in the EMEA and Asia Pacific regions.

Since joining Tristan in 2012, Adam has grown the client base to include investors from China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Australia, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. Investors from these regions now make up over 20% of Tristan’s client base, and this growth is set to continue.

 

Prior to joining Tristan, Adam spent eight years with The Townsend Group, a leading global real estate adviser and investment manager with oversight of more than $180 billion of property allocations. He began his career at Townsend’s Cleveland, U.S. headquarters as an Analyst and then Associate specialising in discretionary portfolio management and investment underwriting. Adam was instrumental in Townsend’s expansion into Europe in 2009, establishing the London office along with a local senior hire.

 

During his tenure at Townsend, Adam analysed more than 200 distinct investment offerings from leading global investment managers. He underwrote more than 20 investment offerings, including commingled funds, recapitalizations, and secondaries, to which Townsend clients committed over $2 billion. He was also responsible for the strategic planning, portfolio management, performance measurement and client service on a number of discretionary and advisory accounts in the US, Europe and Middle East.

 

Adam graduated cum laude from Miami University with a bachelor’s degree in Finance.

Nik Haigh

Co-Head of Client Relations
+44 (0)20 3463 8900

Nik is Co-Head of Client Relations and the Head of North American client relationships at Tristan Capital Partners. 

He joined the firm in 2012, having previously worked with the senior team at Curzon Global Partners, to build the Tristan brand and develop new long-term client relationships in North America.

 

Born in Cambridge, England and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Nik holds dual citizenship. He attended Cornell University where as a student athlete he competed on the varsity soccer team, winning the William and Carla Kid financial scholarship for excellence in academics and athletics.

 

Nik serves on the board of Grassroot Soccer, an international non-profit focused on the health and education of young people. In partnership with organisations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Nike, Grassroot Soccer has worked with over 800,000 disadvantaged young people in the last 10 years.

Peter Randolph

Executive Director
+44 (0)20 3463 8900
Peter is an Executive Director for the Tax team, based in the London office. He is primarily responsible for advising on the acquisition or disposal of UK investments. He also works on debt transactions, fund structuring and strategic tax projects for the wider Tristan business.
Prior to joining Tristan in 2022, Peter had 10 years’ experience working in Real Estate Tax, including working at PwC advising a number of businesses on real estate and infrastructure transactions across the European market. Peter also worked in the tax team at GLP advising on the tax position for their pan-European logistics funds.

Julia Bierwirth

Executive Director
+44 (0)20 3463 8900

Julia is Executive Director in Fund Finance, overseeing the finance teams across both the Opportunistic and Core-Plus investment strategies.

Prior to joining Tristan, Julia worked at Colony Capital (formerly known as NorthStar Real Estate) in both New York and London on the financial reporting team. Prior to that Julia worked in the real estate audit practice at Ernst & Young in New York.

 

Julia is a Certified Public Accountant with the state of New York and holds a bachelors degree in Accountancy from Villanova University.

Thibaut Laffaille

Executive Director

+44 (0)20 3463 8900

Thibaut is Executive Director at Tristan Capital Partners working in the Debt Raising team based in London.

In his role, Thibaut raises debt to support the acquisition of assets and portfolios across Europe in all property sectors focussing primarily on France, Italy and Switzerland as well as advising on interest rate hedging strategies.

 

Thibaut has an experienced senior banker track record. Thibaut joined Tristan in 2023 from DekaBank, where he held several positions including an international assignment in the New-York office and more recently serving as Deputy Head of the origination team in Paris.

 

Prior to joining DekaBank, Thibaut worked for CBRE Investment Management where he was Financing Manager participating in the setting-up of the financing department in relation with the pan-European funds.

 

Thibaut is graduated from Toulouse Business School and EM LYON and is a visiting professor at EM LYON (MSc Finance) since 2010.

Steven Spielmann

Executive Director
+352 27 85 95 16
Steven is Executive Director at Tristan Capital Partners working in the Fund Administration team based in Luxembourg. In his role Steven is involved in different finance related matters including debt origination, debt monitoring, management of intercompany loans and cash repatriations.
Prior to joining Tristan, Steven completed his Master’s degree in Accounting & Finance at Erasmus University of Rotterdam. He received his BSc in Management & Economics from University of Innsbruck. Steven is a Luxembourgish citizen and speaks Luxembourgish, French, German and English.

Barbara Wojszycki

Managing Director – Head of Legal Compliance and Banking Luxembourg Operations
+352 27 85 95 00
Barbara holds the position of Head of Legal and Compliance in Luxembourg. Her role involves supervising the Luxembourg Legal team responsible for managing legal aspects related to transactions and maintaining all current fund structures.

Additionally, she oversees the Luxembourg Compliance team, ensuring adherence to regulations and internal policies. As the head of these departments, Barbara and the teams play a crucial role in ensuring the smooth operation of legal and compliance functions within the organisation, contributing to its overall success and regulatory compliance.

 

She holds a Master’s Degree in Law from the University of Lorraine, France.

Anne-Julie Bellaize

Managing Director
+352 27 85 95 00
Anne-Julie Bellaize is Head of Tax, Fund Administration and Banking of Tristan’s Luxembourg Operations.

She is a member of the Fund Valuation Committee and the Fund Risk Committee. She is also board member of each of the general partners of Tristan Funds based in Luxembourg, including all of the SIFs.

 

Prior to joining Tristan in 2018, Anne-Julie had over 15 years of professional business experience in providing consulting and tax structuring services to multinationals and asset managers.

Justin Armstrong

Managing Director
+44 (0)20 3463 8900
Justin is Funds CFO, managing the financial and operational aspects of the firms’ equity and debt fund structures.

Prior to joining Tristan, Justin has managed real estate and alternative finance teams throughout the world at other asset management firms, within administration houses and as an auditor. Most recently, he was the global head of real estate finance for BlackRock, where he worked for six years before joining Tristan in January 2022.

 

Justin is a Fellow of the ICAEW (FCA), a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) member and holds a BA in Psychology from Sheffield University.

Madeleine Brooks

Head of the Analyst Programme

+44 (0)20 3463 8900

Amena Chaudhary

Head of HR

+44 (0)20 3463 8900

Amena is Head of HR at Tristan Capital Partners.

She has been working in HR since 2005, with experience working across all HR disciplines within the Commercial Real Estate and Financial services industry.

 

Prior to Tristan, she worked in the HR team for PATRIZIA AG, a European real estate investment firm and is currently a chartered member of the CIPD.

Camelia Chuah

Head of Corporate Finance
+44 (0)20 3463 8900

Camelia is Head of Corporate Finance at Tristan.

Camelia joined the firm in 2013, prior which she spent nine years at Financial Risk Management Limited (FRM), a leading international fund of hedge funds business. At FRM, Camelia was responsible for the co-ordination and production of the group management and financial accounts as well as being the financial controller for all FRM UK entities. 

 

Following the acquisition of FRM by Man Group, she assisted with the finance integration and co-ordination and preparation of all of the accounts for the legacy FRM entities in the UK.

 

Camelia qualified as a Chartered Management Accountant whilst working at FRM and holds a BSc. in Mathematics from Kings College London.

Tina Ratte

Firm CFO

+44 (0)20 3463 8900
Tina joined Tristan in 2014 and has over 17 years of experience working in the real estate and financial services industry. Previously, she worked at KPMG, initially in audit and later as part of their tax advisory practice.
She is a Chartered Accountant and received her B.A in Political Science at the University of British Columbia, in Canada.

Jo Rothwell

COO and Chief Risk Officer
+44 (0)20 3463 8900

Jo is COO, responsible for overseeing the operations on the firm, jointly with Olivia Griffiths, as well as Corporate Finance, Risk Management, Legal, Compliance and Regulation. She is also Chief Risk Officer.

Jo joined Tristan in 2014 and has almost 20 years experience working in the financial services industry, having started her career at KPMG.

 

There, she trained in Financial Services Audit and subsequently specialised in M&A Corporate Finance.

 

Jo is a Fellow of the ICAEW (FCA) and holds a BSc in Natural Sciences (Chemistry and Mathematics) from Durham University.

 

Ashil Sodha

Executive Director
+44 (0)20 3463 8900

Ashil is Executive Director for Debt Origination within Debt Investments at Tristan Capital Partners. He is responsible for originating, structuring, underwriting and executing new credit investment opportunities across all European jurisdictions.

Prior to joining Tristan, Ashil was a Vice President at Starz Real Estate, based in London where he played a key role in creating and scaling a new real estate lending platform investing in public and private real estate debt, from inception to a €500m business.

 

Previously, Ashil worked for BlackRock’s Global Real Estate Debt business, responsible for underwriting, structuring, asset managing and conducting investor reporting for senior and mezzanine debt investments across all asset classes, both in the U.S. and Europe.

 

Ashil started his career at Barclays where he underwrote and managed the distribution of complex, large-ticket leveraged real estate investment and development loans.

 

During his career, Ashil has originated and underwritten €3.2bn of real estate loans.

 

Ashil holds the CFA IMC qualification and received a BA with Honours in Economics and Hispanic Studies from the University of Sheffield. He is a British citizen and speaks English, Spanish, Hindi and Gujarati.

Dan Pottorff

Head of Debt Investment

+44 (0)20 3463 8900

Dan is Head of Debt Investment at Tristan. He is responsible for all of Tristan’s lending activities including the Tristan Income Plus Strategies (TIPS) Fund series. 

Since its launch in 2021, Tristan’s lending platform has arranged more than €1.0bn of debt financing across Europe and the UK. Dan has an experienced track record in real estate lending, structured finance and distressed investing, spanning 20 years.

 

Prior to joining Tristan in 2021, Dan was Managing Director in the Debt & Special Situations team at LaSalle Investment Management where he was responsible for originating and executing transactions for the LaSalle Real Estate Debt Strategies fund series and several separate account mandates encompassing development finance, whole loan lending and special situations. During his time at LaSalle, Dan was directly responsible for transactions representing over €1.4bn of lending and was fund manager for the Special Situations program.

 

Prior to joining LaSalle in 2014, Dan worked at Strategic Value Partners (SVP) where he was involved in acquiring c.€300m of distressed collateralized mortgage-backed securities (CMBS), whole loans and mezzanine loans backed by real estate in the UK, Germany and Spain.

 

Previously, Dan was part of the Securitized Products Group at Morgan Stanley where he was involved in underwriting c. €10bn of loans in the UK, Spain, Benelux and Germany as well as structuring CMBS for the European Loan Conduit (ELOC) program.

 

Dan holds an MSc with Distinction in Global Market Economics from the London School of Economics and a BBA in Business Administration and BSc in Economics from the University of Iowa. He has been living and working in London since 2002.

Ali Otmar

Senior Partner – Head of Investments
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Ali is a Senior Partner and Head of Investments at Tristan Capital Partners. He is responsible for oversight of origination and execution of new investments in Continental Europe. 

Ali has over 20 years’ experience, having been with Tristan since 2011 and historically led the firm’s investment business in Germany, Austria and Benelux on behalf of its core-plus and value-add fund series. 

 

Prior to joining Tristan, Ali worked for five years in Merrill Lynch’s Real Estate Principal Investments group and its successor, Peakside Capital. While at Merrill Lynch, he was responsible for structuring, raising and managing the Bosphorus Real Estate Fund I which made investments in excess of €500 million.

 

Prior to Merrill Lynch’s Real Estate Principal Investment group, Ali was a Vice President at Citigroup, where he was responsible for the execution of European real estate investments with a transaction volume of over €10 billion.

 

Ali received a BA in Economics with Honors from the University of Chicago in 1999.

 

Ali is both a UK and Turkish citizen. He speaks Turkish, English and German.

Jean-Philippe Blangy

Senior Partner – Head of Asset Management and Head of ESG
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Jean-Philippe Blangy is a Senior Partner, Head of Asset Management and Head of ESG at Tristan Capital Partners, bringing a 20 year track record to the firm. 

He oversees the portfolio and asset management of all Tristan-managed Funds, which together total over €9.1 billion.

 

In his role, Jean-Philippe and his team have managed the sale of more than €4 billion of assets over the past few years (including single asset sales and portfolios over €500 million). He has held various responsibilities within the firm, including an investment role in deploying capital in France in office, logistics and retail portfolios. Over his career, Jean-Philippe has developed strong expertise in various sectors, notably logistics and retail.

 

Jean-Philippe joined Tristan in 2010 from AEW Europe, where he held the position of Director of Portfolio/Asset Management for its European Funds. He began his career as an in-house lawyer within the real estate department at Allianz France.

 

Jean-Philippe studied European Law in Paris. Jean-Philippe is a post-graduate in Commercial Law and holds two Masters in Construction Law and Environment Law.

 

Outside of work, Jean-Philippe is a Trustee at Friends of Bousfield, a charity organisation that supports less advantaged children in primary education in South West London.

Cameron Spry

Co-Chief Executive and Co-Chief Investment Officer

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Cameron is Co-Chief Executive & Co-Chief Investment Officer at Tristan Capital Partners.

Cameron is Co-Chief Executive and Co-Chief Investment Officer at Tristan. He serves on The Tristan Capital Partners Board and on the Investment Committee of all the Funds that the firm manages. He is also responsible for the E-series Funds as Portfolio Manager.

 

Cameron joined Tristan in 2010 as a Partner and was Head of Investment, where he oversaw the Investment team at Tristan.

 

Prior to joining Tristan, Cameron worked for Fortress Investment Group in London. He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Law and Economics from Otago University in New Zealand.

Ian Laming

Co-Chief Executive

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Ian Laming is Co-Chief Executive of Tristan. He is a member of Tristan’s Management Board and sits on the Firm’s Investment, Fund Risk, Firm Risk, Valuation, Operations and Compliance committees.

Ian was instrumental in the launch of Tristan in 2009 and has been involved in all aspects of the firm’s development since it was founded.

 

Ian began his career as an investment manager at Baillie Gifford in the UK. He was then Head of Latin America Strategy in New York for Flemings, and Co-Head of European Research in London for Morgan Stanley.

 

Ian currently serves as a Governor of the King Alfred School and acts as Advisor to the Gaia Foundation.

 

He received his B.A. in Law at Oxford University.

Ric Lewis

Executive Chairman – Co-Chief Investment Officer

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Executive Chairman – Co-Chief Investment Officer

“We take our work and our success very seriously, but we take ourselves far less so.” Ric Lewis

Regarded as one of the most creative and consummate professionals in the international real estate management industry, Ric is Tristan’s Senior Portfolio Manager, responsible for the Fund’s overall strategy and execution. He brings more than twenty-five years of experience and investment success to the roles of Chairman of the Investment Committee, Chief Investment Officer and Founding Partner of Tristan Capital Partners.

 

A graduate of Dartmouth College in the USA, where he received an A.B., Economics, Ric is also an alumnus of Harvard Business School (PMD). In the US, he was a Partner and Senior Managing Director of AEW Capital Management, an investment management business with 200 staff and $25 billion under management. Moving to Europe, Ric then became Chief Investment Officer and Board Director of AEW Europe, a pan-European real estate investment management business with 11 offices, 270 staff and €18 billion in assets under management.

 

He then founded and served for several years as Chief Executive for Curzon Global Partners, a London based real estate investment company, owned by AEW Europe.

 

Outside of work, Ric is a passionate advocate for improving less advantaged children’s access to quality education, in particular through his own Black Heart Foundation. He serves, or has recently served on the Board of Trustees for Dartmouth College, the Board of Trustees for Royal SpringBoard, the Board of Directors of London First; the Board of Visitors for the Belfer Centre for International Policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government; the Board of Trustees of The International Inspiration Foundation; The Ambassadors Council of Grassroots Soccer; the Board of Governors of King Solomon Academy; the Board of Directors of the Eastside Young Leaders Academy and Chair of the Board The Institute of Imagination.

 

Ric has dual American and British nationality.

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