2018 Judging & Jury
The members of the 2018 CEEQA Jury gathered in Warsaw for the final round of judging on 24th April, on the eve of the CEEQA Gala, to select the winners from the year’s short listed candidates. Serious minded yet fun, an invitation to the CEEQA Jury Dinner is one of the most prized networking opportunities the New Europe property sector has to offer.
The annual CEEQA Gala attracts more than 800 business leaders and decision makers in commercial real estate investment from more than 50 countries for the sector’s flagship gathering. Congratulations to all winners and our thanks to all awards entrants, jurors, partners and collaborators on another successful CEEQA.
Judging from experience – who are the CEEQA Jury?
A group of the most experienced and influential operators across the CEE and SEE property markets judges entries for the awards.
Each year a panel of judges is selected from senior management representatives of market leading companies active in the sector who are charged with nominating the candidates in 23 award categories before inviting them to submit entry forms, then assesses all entries to decide the short list and eventual winners through a detailed and rigorous procedure closely monitored by Deloitte.
We’re proud to introduce the members of the 2018 jury and our thanks for their efforts and contribution.
Congratulations to all winners and our thanks to all awards entrants, jurors, partners and collaborators on another successful CEEQA. The annual CEEQA Gala attracts more than 800 business leaders and decision makers in commercial real estate investment from more than 50 countries for the sector’s flagship gathering read full 2018 Review >>
Aku Sorainen is the senior partner of a leading international law firm SORAINEN, which he founded in 1995 in Estonia and later expanded to Latvia, Lithuania and Belarus. Today leading a partnership of 29 partners and over 180 lawyers in total, he has spent several intensive years in developing the organisation and quality management system of the firm. Aku is the senior vice-chairman of the Law Firm Management Committee at the International Bar Association, the global voice of the legal profession. Andrew has been JLL’s Managing Director for the Czech Republic since 1 January 2021. He has more than 15 years of experience in real estate in the CEE region and has also worked in the UK for four years. Previously, he was CEO of JLL in Belgrade, Bucharest and Zagreb. He also spent three years managing the office leasing department in King Sturge’s Prague office before JLL’s merger with King Sturge in 2011. Andrew has extensive sales and business development experience, is very familiar with the client environment, is a leadership type and has a passion for developing JLL’s business plans in the region. During his time in the CEE region, Peirson has advised key market occupiers and investors. In the last 5 years, he has been involved in transactions in the SEE region with a total volume of over €1 billion. In 1991 Arvydas established AB Hanner, and from 1995 the company commenced investment in real estate. AB Hanner grew into leader of Baltic region and in 2004 received a CEEQA award for mixed use real estate development of the year for the Europa project in Vilnius. From 2005 AB Hanner started investment in foreign markets and currently develops projects in four countries – Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, Romania, and completed a project in Russia. Arvydas obtained a master degree of Civil Engineering from Vilnius Gediminas Technical University in 1978. Managing Director of STRABAG Real Estate in Poland. He has 20 years of experience in the real estate sector, working i.e. as a manager in the field of property development and office facility financing for both Polish and international developers. Licensed real estate broker with a degree in property valuation. Member of RICS and CCIM professional institutes. After a successful legal career spanning more than 27 years as a real estate lawyer with the like of Mills & Reeve (Cambridge), Linklaters (London and Prague) and most recently as managing partner of Wilsons law firm, Bryan has changed direction and is now Head of CEE and Head of European Business Development for Dual Asset. Once a client of Bryan’s, Dual Asset is the largest Managing General Agent (MGA) outside of the US and is a leading provider of transactional risk insurance across Europe, providing insurance on many of the most high profile transactions and helping banks and insolvency and bankruptcy trustees dealing with the sales of distressed assets. Charles moved to Central Europe in 1998, residing initially in Budapest and then Warsaw. He is regarded as one of the region’s leading commercial real estate experts. As Managing Director of Cushman & Wakefield in both Hungary and Poland, Charles was responsible for the substantial growth and financial success of these businesses including the successful merger of DTZ and C&W in Poland, creating a market leading real estate consultancy, employing over 440 people. Charles has been instrumental in developing the region’s investment markets since the first institutional capital was deployed back in the early 2000’s. Transacting in the core markets of CE plus Croatia and across all commercial sectors, he has worked with a broad spectrum of clients including DWS, Union Investment, Skanska, Ghelamco, Heitman, Invesco, CBRE IM, Griffin Capital Partners and Credit Suisse. He advised Wing on the successful acquisition of a majority stake in the leading Polish developer Echo Investment and Charles remains a key advocate for the region’s continued success, especially Poland. Recently, Charles has been advisor to the Board and Shareholder of iO Partners – a JLL Preferred Partner, with 250 people and offices in Czech, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Serbia. Through Bracken Consulting Ltd, Charles continues to work with select investors targeting Poland. Ewa has 25 years of vast experience in the different sectors of real estate. She worked as a property director, head of leasing, head of asset management for Central Europe, COO Poland and fund manager. Working for AEW for more than 9 years she currently heads the asset management department responsible for CEE and Nordics. Prior to joining AEW in 2014, Ewa worked at Atrium Real Estate Management, Manhattan Real Estate Management, Foras and Steen&StrØm in Poland. Ewa holds a master degree of Political Science, a Diploma in Marketing by Chartered Institute of Marketing. She is also a certified property and leasing manager. Guy is a founding shareholder of Arcona Capital, which, from its offices in Munich, Amsterdam, Prague and Warsaw, currently manages over € 645 million of investment and development property across six European countries. Prior to establishing Arcona Capital, Guy trained in London with Knight Frank, established their German business in the 1990s, then moved to Hypovereinsbank in Munich to build their international real estate fund business. This merged with Invesco in 2004, an entity which Guy ran as CEO Europe before founding Arcona in 2007. Hadley has been successfully operating in Poland for over 20 years where he is recognised for growing businesses and consistently outperforming the market place. Before establishing MDC² he used to hold the role of the founding CEO of EPP – the largest owner of shopping centres in Poland (EUR 2.6bn of GAV). Prior to EPP he was a Managing Partner for Eastern Europe for Colliers International where he built the best logistics and industrial space agency business in Central and Eastern Europe. In 2021 Hadley was the recipient of the prestigious CEEQA Lifetime Achievement in Real Estate award. Highly specialized in office agency and client representation services, Horatiu has a wide breadth of property experience, gained in his 20 years’ career by advising the main developers as well as the most prominent multinational companies operating in Romania. Named ‘Most Successful Broker’ on Romania’s market, several times, Horatiu is reputed for his cutting edge and professional consultancy services to tenants, developers and investors alike. Widely acknowledged for his pre-lease expertise, Horatiu has been involved in the largest real estate office projects, having leased over 1 mil. Sq M office space. Ian has more than 30 years of experience in the real estate sector, specifically in the warehouse and industrial sectors. He began his career at Strutt & Parker in London in 1981 where he spent 16 years, eventually becoming a commercial partner within the firm. He is a former Chairman of the Industrial Agents Society and is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (FRICS). Ian joined Gazeley Properties in 1997 as Development Director UK before leading them into Europe and later became a Managing Director, responsible for Belgium, France and Spain. During his 10-year tenure at Gazeley, Ian was responsible for UK developments in London and Southern England. In Western Europe, he secured over 850 hectares of development land and successfully developed over 350,000 SQM GLA of warehouse space on behalf of Gazeley. Ian briefly joined Parkridge Holdings in 2006 and left when it was sold to ProLogis, then joining Panattoni as Managing Director Western Europe in 2007 where he was responsible for development, including warehouse and out-of-town retail space. He also served on the Panattoni European Management Board. In 2009 Ian left Panattoni to become the Chief Executive Officer of Pinnacle s.r.o. (now P3). Mr Worboys was educated at Whitgift School in Croydon, England and at Bristol Polytechnic (now University of the West of England) in Bristol, England where he completed a Diploma in Valuation and Estate Management. Ingo joined Sonae Sierra in 2000, when the company began its operations in Germany. In 2007 he was appointed Director, Development Romania, with particular responsibilities for the shopping centre development activities in that country. Ingo has a degree in Civil Engineering from the Technical University in Braunschweig. He gained his PhD at the Technical University in Munich. Jan has been active in field of Asset & Property management for more than 10 years, working for CTP, JLL and Knight Frank. He joined PENTA in 2014 and became responsible for Asset management of the companies real estate portfolio and implementation of new processes to the department. After PENTA sold its first real estate project in Prague, the Florentinum, Jan managed to keep the active asset management mandate for the buyer. He has a master degree in civil engineering. Jason is both the Managing Partner of BSC Real Estate Advisors, overseeing the operational running of the business, as well as the Partner responsible for Office, Industrial and Capital Markets advisory. Jason started his career in London where he trained as a Chartered Surveyor and since 1998 has been working on real estate transactions in Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Poland. As Head of Central & Eastern Europe, Jonathan oversees Cushman & Wakefield’s operations across the region, with over 1100 staff in six countries (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Russia and Turkey) and Cushman & Wakefield Alliance partners in a further nine countries across the CEE region. Jonathan is a European Executive Committee Member of Cushman & Wakefield and the Managing Partner of Cushman & Wakefield in the Czech Republic. He is a member of the RICS, IBF Board Member (International Business Forum), and BGMC Board Member. Karol works in the real estate industry for almost last 20 years. He is currently responsible for Futureal Investment Partners, the Investment arm of Futureal Group. Futureal Group is one of the biggest commercial and residential developer in CEE but also active in US, Israel, Germany and UK. Futureal beside residential development business in Poland (Cordia and Polnord) has also logistic activities in the CEE region (HelloParks), hotel, office, and retail investments. Prior joining Futureal Karol worked at Australian’s Cromwell Property Group (ASX index) responsible for CEE region (Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania) in the commercial real estate sector managed 50 people team and Euro 1,2 bn AUM. Since 2009 till 2020 additionally managed Polish Retail Fund holding 11 polish assets initially in the portfolio, with 750 retail tenants, and since 2012 till 2021 managed Central European Industrial Fund, holding c. 50 logistic assets in Poland, Czech Republic, Romania and Hungary, 270 tenants and AuM c. Euro 275 MM initially. Prior Cromwell, Karol worked at GE Capital Real Estate, involved in MBO of GE Capital Real Estate polish and Luxembourg licensed businesses to Cromwell. Size of the transactions c. Euro 550 MM. Prior GE Capital Real Estate worked at Aareal Bank and ING Real Estate IM. Karol holds independent supervisory positions in BlueWater Capital, Polnord S.A. Karol has both, CCIM and RICS certificates Lenka has been active in real estate financing more than 15 years. Together with her professional team within ČSOB, she is responsible for real estate financing in the Czech Republic. The main task of the division is to secure the financial service tailored-made for real estate developers and investors and others, for whom is the ownership, facility management or real estate crucial in their business. During the career, Lenka has successfully structured the financing of dozens real estate projects in volume of several billion EUR. Lenka is the Board member of Association for real estate development from 2012. Maarten is responsible for RICS operations in Europe, Russia & CIS. He leads a diverse and dynamic team across Europe, Russia & CIS, where he is responsible for bringing ethical and professional standards to the European property market and offering access to the most sought after professional status. He is looking to develop the profile and standing of RICS across continental Europe, Russia and CIS, strengthen member services and reach out for new members. Maarten has many years of experience in real estate. Before taking this role he was Europe Director at Composition Capital Partners where he was responsible for a significant portfolio of equity investments across Europe. Prior to that, he worked with Protego Real Estate Investors, Lasalle Investment Management and Bouwfonds Asset Management. The asset management expert started his career at the Bank Austria Creditanstalt Real Invest GmbH, where he was amongst others responsible for Asset Management Germany, CEE and SEE. In 2007, he moved to Raiffeisen Capital Management as Investment Manager for the open ended real estate fund products of RCM. His field of responsibility included property investments in Germany as well as asset management of the logistic portfolio of RCM. 2009 Markus Kuttner joined CA Immo Group with the responsibility of Asset Management in CEE, SEE and CIS. Since 2017 he is heading the Asset Management for the CAI group comprising Germany, Austria and the CEE/SEE region. Markus Kuttner is holding an MBA and MRICS studies. Matthias has worked with Erste Group Bank AG since 2005 with a focus in real estate financing from the very beginning. In 2007 he joined the commercial real estate financing department in Erste Group. Since 2011 he is heading the International Clients Department for Commercial Real Estate Financing. The regional focus includes Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia. Matthias is Managing Director of Erste Group Bank AG. Michael is a Partner and a member of TPG Real Estate’s Investment Committee and is based in London. He joined TPG from Europa Capital and started his career in the Private Equity Real Estate divisions of J.P.Morgan and Lehman Brothers. He holds a Diplome de Grande Ecole and MSc in Management from ESCP Europe, and speaks German, Spanish, English, Portuguese and French. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of TriGranit and A&O Hotels and Hostels. TPG Real Estate is the real estate platform of TPG, a leading global private investment firm with approximately $75 billion of assets under management. TPGRE includes both TPG Real Estate Partners, its equity investment platform, and TPG Real Estate Finance Trust, its debt origination and acquisition platform. Monika is a UK chartered surveyor (FRICS), chartered town planner (MRTPI), Civil Commercial Mediator, Polish licensed valuer and a licensed broker with over 30 years of experience in development advice, property finance and investment, valuation as well as property and asset management. She graduated in Town Planning at the South Bank University in London and Estate Management at College of Estate Management Reading University in UK. For several years, she worked for a chartered surveying firm of Montagu Evans in London as a Development consultant. Monika joined Price Waterhouse CEE in 1991 and has gained extensive experience of the real estate markets throughout Central and Eastern Europe. In 1995 she was appointed a Director of Price Waterhouse Real Estate and became a Chairman of Knight Frank in Poland in 1998, currently overseeing Asset and Property Management as well as Valuation service lines. In 2011-2014 she was a Chairman of RICS Polska and currently heads up the RICS Mediation Working Party aiming to introduce alternative dispute resolution services in the Polish property market. Noah is the chairman and CEO of WING, the market leading office developer and one of the largest real estate companies in Hungary. He is an American citizen, he has worked in Hungary since 1990. In his current position he was responsible for establishing WING and oversees the company’s real estate investment and development businesses. Noah is a graduate of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, and the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna in Austria. He speaks French, German, Spanish, Hungarian and English. Otis was hired in September 2013 as the President of the Board of PPM. He is responsible for the asset management for Polonia I and Polonia II, the origination and execution of new business in Poland, as well as the managerial oversight of Peakside’s office in Warsaw. He has over 20 years of experience in the real estate industry and has executed transactions and functioned as a fiduciary in North America, Europe and Asia. He was until recently the Co-Head/Managing Director of KSP Real Estate Investment Management. From 2005 to 2012, Mr. Spencer was active as Managing Director/Co-Head Europe and member of the Investment Committee with Heitman. During this time he directed the Portfolio Management for Heitman’s European Private Equity group and was the Portfolio Manager for Heitman European Property Partners IV. In addition to his portfolio management responsibilities, Mr. Spencer was active in originating transactions and capital raising efforts as well as contributing to the strategic development of Heitman’s European platform. Prior to Heitman, Otis worked for ABP Investments (“ABP”) in the Netherlands where he was a Senior Portfolio Manager. In this capacity, he was responsible for sourcing, structuring and managing non-listed real estate investments on behalf of ABP’s European and Asia Pacific Strategic Funds. During his time at ABP, Mr. Spencer identified and completed ABP’s first real estate private equity investments in Central Europe and Asia. Otis graduated from the University of California Berkeley with a master’s degree in business administration with a concentration in finance and real estate. He also has master’s degree in real estate designation from the Universiteit van Amsterdam. Mr. Spencer holds a dual citizenship from the Netherlands and the United States, and is based in Warsaw, Poland. Pavel Pelikan graduated from the Construction Faculty of Slovak Technical University (Bratislava) in 1995. During his studies, he worked for suppliers of construction projects and products. In February 2000 he moved to the investor side of the construction and real estate industry, becoming project manager at J&T Real Estate. In 2001 he became technical director, and since 2005 has been J&T Real Estate‘s executive director and deputy chairman of the board. Petr Panek is a Czech and US law-qualified deal leader heading the CEE real estate team at White & Case. He acts for a wide range of sponsors, developers, banks and other clients on real estate matters across all market segments, with a particular focus on large ticket deals, portfolio and cross-border transactions. Over the years he has advised on some of the most significant real estate deals in CEE. Based in Prague, Philip is responsible for transactions across CEE on behalf of GLL Real Estate Partner’s managed property funds and segregated accounts. He has 20 years’ professional experience in commercial real estate sales, leasing and development, corporate real estate advisory, and property investment in the UK and across Central & Eastern Europe. He began his property career in London specialising in Leasing and Tenant Representation, and while working with DTZ he moved to their office in the Czech Republic as Head of Agency in 2005. Philip then worked for 3 years in the Cushman & Wakefield Capital Markets team in Prague before joining GLL in 2011. Philip graduated from Nottingham Trent University with a degree in Estate Surveying, and is a Chartered Surveyor. Radu joined Revetas Capital in 2013 and is the Investment Director of the company. He was elected Chairman of the Romanian board of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) for two consecutive mandates. He has over 21 years of experience in investment, valuation and property agency within the CEE and Romanian market and has been involved in a wide variety of transactions. Radu was previously the Head of Capital Markets for Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) in Romania following the merger with King Sturge. He was the MD and member of the management board of King Sturge in Romania from its inception in 2005 until the merger with JLL, where his responsibility extended to investment, professional services, valuation and research. His extensive real estate experience includes investment and asset management strategy advise, investment management, equity and debt financing, valuations, and a wide spectrum of acquisitions, disposals, developments and feasibility studies. Richard Curran, the Managing Director of CBRE in the Czech Republic, has over 19 years of experience in the Czech commercial real estate market. He has led the CBRE Czech office since 2008, having joined the company in 2004 to lead the Agency side of the business. During this time, he has overseen the growth of the office from 35 people to over 300, and has been involved in the establishment of the industrial, retail and project management business lines. He has also overseen the acquisition of the EMCM and Impact Corti businesses, and their subsequent mergers into the CBRE Czech business. Richard has an honours degree from the National University of Ireland and is a Member of the Royal Institution of Charted Surveyors (RICS). Roger joined Avestus Real Estate as CEO in April, 2006 bringing more than 20 years of experience in the real estate business. From its headquarters in Prague, Roger oversees the continued development of ARE’s portfolio of residential, office and retail properties, a number of large mixed-use developments, and the company’s ongoing expansion into new territories across CEE. Prior to his current position with ARE. Roger held Managing Director and CEO positions at leading real estate entities in the UK, including: 2002–2006, Divisional Managing Director of Gleeson Homes, a wholly owned subsidiary of MJ Gleeson Group; 1999–2001, residential Managing Director at Chelverton International; 1996–1999, Managing Director, South Thames division of Countryside Properties. Roger is a member of The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). Sean is the Head of Capital Markets for Central & Eastern Europe covering office, retail, industrial, residential, hotels and alternative sectors having been based primarily in Poland for 16 years. Sean started his career in San Francisco working for a developer before moving to London and eventually Poland and has led CBRE to their current number one position on the Polish market in recent years transacting over EUR 14 Billion. Recently Sean has led some of the most important office transactions within the CEE region including the sales of the Iconic Warsaw Spire, the Warsaw Hub, Rondo 1, Plac Unii, Q22, Generation Park, Metropolitan, Warsaw Trade Tower, Malachowski Square, Ethos, Eurocentrum, Browary Warszawskie and the Equator just to name a few. While on the buyside he has brokered the sales of Zlote Tarasy (Skylight & Lumen), Spektrum, Warsaw Financial Centre, IBC, Focus, Sezam, Mokotow Nova and Oxford Tower. Sean has overseen the sales of the largest Logistics Portfolios in the history of the Polish market with the sales of 5 subsequent Hillwood portfolios, the largest sale and leaseback transactions on behalf of Amazon, separate record breaking Amazon sales for Macquarie and Invesco as well as Zalando. He has also been involved in the acquisition of EUR 1 Billion M1 Retail Portfolio, the EUR 300 Million acquisition of Wars Sawa Junior – Poland’s iconic high street asset. In 2019 Sean oversaw the sale of the EUR 600 Million Rocky portfolio. While hotel sales have included the sale of the Puro Hotel portfolio and Sheraton Kraków. Tomas is the chief investment officer and a member of the board of directors of REICO Investicní Spolecnost CS, the largest and oldest Czech open-ended property fund manager. He carries overall responsibility for fund’s property business including transactions, leasing, asset management and valuations. In his previous role, he acted as the director of capital markets in CBRE Prague office. Tomas is a member of the Czech CFA Society and a member of the RICS. Wojciech Koczara is a qualified legal advisor, a partner and head of the Real Estate in Poland and in CEE. He specialises in real estate business law and for over 16 years advises domestic and international investors in purchase, sale and lease of commercial estates and the performance of development projects. He advised on significant real estate, corporate and financing transactions, including acquisitions and disposals of office buildings, hotels and shopping centers, as well as projects concerning logistics centers. Yannis is a founding Partner of private equity investment management firm Bluehouse Capital with a focus on real estate investments in Emerging Europe. He is a graduate of the Advanced Management Development Program in Real Estate from Harvard University, holding a MSc in Project Management from the University of Texas at Austin.Aku Sorainen, Senior Partner, Sorainen
Andrew Peirson MRICS, Managing Director Czech Republic, JLL
Arvydas Avulis, Chairman & Owner, AB Hanner
Bogdan Zasada, (MRICS) Managing Director Poland, STRABAG Real Estate
Bryan Wilson, Head of CEE, Dual Asset
Charles Taylor MRICS, Advisor to the Board & Shareholder, Bracken Consulting
Ewa Parys, Executive Director & Head of Asset Management CEE & Nordics, AEW
Guy Barker, (LLB, FRICS) Principal, Arcona Capital
Hadley Dean, Founder, MDC²
Horatiu Florescu, Chairman & CEO Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia, Knight Frank
Ian Worboys, Global CEO, P3 Logistic Parks
Ingo Nissen, Managing Director Romania, Sonae Sierra
Jan Kotaska, Head of Asset Management, PENTA Investments
Jason Sharman, Managing Partner, BSC Real Estate Advisors
Jonathan Hallett MRICS, Executive Partner, Head of Central & Eastern Europe, Cushman & Wakefield
Karol Pilniewicz, CEO, Futureal
Kean Hird, Partner, Catalyst Capital
Lenka Kostrounova, Director of Real Estate Financing Division, CSOB
Maarten Vermeulen, Managing Director Europe, Russia & CIS, RICS
Markus Kuttner, (MBA, MRICS) Group Head of Asset Management, CA Immo
Matthias Bitzan, Head of CRE Clients Austria, Erste Group Bank
Michael Abel, Partner, TPG Real Estate
Mike Atwell, DHL
Monika Debska-Pastakia, (FRICS) Partner, Chairman of the Board Poland, Knight Frank
Noah Steinberg FRICS, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, WING
Otis Spencer, President, Peakside Polonia Management
Pavel Pelikan, Executive Director, J&T Real Estate
Petr Panek, Head of CEE Real Estate, White & Case
Philip Wood, Head of CEE Transactions, GLL Real Estate Partners
Radu Boitan FRICS, Senior Investment Director, Revetas Capital
Richard Curran, (MRICS) Managing Director Czech Republic, CBRE
Roger Dunlop MRICS, Chief Executive Officer, Avestus Real Estate
Sean Doyle, Head of Capital Markets Central & Eastern Europe, CBRE
Tomas Jandik, (CFA, MRICS) Chief Investment Officer, REICO
Wojciech Koczara, Partner, Head of Central & Eastern Europe Real Estate, CMS
Yannis Delikanakis, Partner, Bluehouse Capital