Harrison Street Asset Management, a global investment management business with more than $100 billion (£74.5 billion) in assets under management, has appointed Ivo de Wit as managing director of portfolio management.
Based in London, De Wit will oversee portfolio management for the company's European open-ended core real estate strategy. He will be responsible for research and strategy, analytics, portfolio construction, and investment execution.
Harrison Street said the appointment shows its "continued focus on core opportunities, and an expanded focus on European core investments, as investors increasingly incorporate alternative assets into their core allocations".
Described as a "seasoned investment professional with over 25 years of experience in global real estate", De Wit has experience working across multiple sectors such as student housing, senior living, medical office, self storage, and life sciences, as well as having a "deep commitment to ESG principles".
The firm said the recruit would build on its work in the alternative real estate space by "investing in an emerging set of opportunities in core assets across European alternative property sectors, while maintaining a culture of excellence and innovation across the team and platform".
De Wit was managing director at Goldman Sachs, where he led the European Core+ Real Estate strategy and developed the research and analytic capabilities. He started that role in April last year.
His experience also includes serving as the fund manager for CBRE's Global Alpha Fund, executive position at Evolution Global Investors, portfolio manager at ING Real Estate, and head of strategy at Clarion Partners.
Over the course of his career, De Wit has managed global portfolios totalling more than $9 billion (£6.71 billion) and contributed to capital raises that totalled over $10 billion (£7.45 billion) in equity from corporate pension schemes, local government pension schemes, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies and high net worth platforms around the world.
Christopher Merrill, co-founder and global CEO of Harrison Street, said in a statement: "Ivo’s deep expertise across global real estate markets, his experience managing core investment portfolios, and his proven ability to scale platforms make him an outstanding addition to our team.
"Ivo joins us at a time when we are seeing investors increasingly consider core strategies when allocating to European alternative real estate. His portfolio management leadership will be instrumental as we continue expanding our European platform and providing investors with access to alternative assets through an even greater number of innovative solutions.”
De Wit holds an MA in Economics and a Ph.D. in Finance from Maastricht University, as well as an MBA from the Joint Global Executive Program at Columbia Business School and London Business School.