Managing Director, Europe

Skills and Experience

As Managing Director, Pertti Vanhanen has operational responsibility for running the European business.

Pertti joined Cromwell in 2021 and is a seasoned leader in the real estate industry with over 30 years’ experience. He has held a number of senior roles at a number of leading European management organisations throughout his career, most recently as Global Co-head of Real Estate at Aberdeen Standard Investments.

While at Aberdeen Standard Investments and Aberdeen Asset Management (AAM), Pertti led or was closely involved in several major corporate and real estate transactions, including the merger of AAM and SLI’s real estate divisions, establishing the group’s Asian real estate organisation and the launch of several successful funds and trusts including pan European residential funds, Nordic funds and the first ever open-ended property fund in Finland.

Head of Distribution

Skills and Experience

Cecile has over 12 years of experience in real estate investment and debt capital markets in the UK, North America, and continental Europe.

Prior to joining Cromwell in June 2023, she co-headed business development at London-based investment firm Long Harbour, where she was responsible for fundraising for the long income and multi-family programmes, articulating the geographic approach to expansion into new regions, establishing strategic partnerships with local operators to source transactions, and authoring in-depth market studies on target locations.

She has held roles as head of product development and investor relations for multiple asset-backed debt originators in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, during which time she also served as an expert witness on a Federal bank fraud case.

Cecile holds an MA in international relations and modern history from the University of St Andrews and an MBA from the University of Cambridge with a focus on cross-border business.

Acting Chief Financial Officer, Europe

Skills and Experience

Tim Sewell was appointed Acting Chief Financial Officer, Europe in June 2024 and is responsible for Cromwell’s finance operations across the European region.

Tim has more than 30 years’ experience in a variety of roles and sectors, of which the last 15 years have been with Cromwell. Prior to his appointment as CFO, Tim held the position of European Financial Controller since 2010.

Tim holds a BSc in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Edinburgh and qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1993.

Head of Investment Management, Europe

Skills and Experience

Andrew Creighton is Head of Investment Management, Europe, and is responsible for all aspects of Cromwell’s investment, fund and asset execution and management activity across the European region.

Andrew joined Cromwell in June 2022 and has 25 years’ of real estate investment management experience. His expertise spans over all major investment sectors including logistics, office, retail and residential and across all risk profiles.

Prior to joining Cromwell, Andrew has held several senior leadership roles with the most recent being Head of Investment Management Real Estate at abrdn where he was responsible for managing over €45 billion of AUM and the asset management, development management and transactions teams.

Andrew graduated from Cambridge University in 1990, completed a second degree in Estate Management at Southbank University and qualified as a Chartered Surveyor in 1993.

Head of Southern Europe

Skills and Experience

Michael Bohde is responsible for implementing strategy, growing assets and managing the local teams in Germany, France & Italy.

Michael has more than 15 years’ experience in the real estate industry gained from working in a variety of different roles such as financing, transactions, asset management and advisory in the UK, France, and Germany. Michael is member of the European Management Team and also responsible for the local platforms in France and Italy.

Michael holds degrees from the European ESCP Business School and is a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

Head of Research & Investment Strategy

Skills and Experience

As Head of Research & Investment Strategy, Tom is responsible for setting the top-down investment strategy for Cromwell’s international platform by producing house views, research, and insight to advise the business and its investors on market and sector opportunities and risks. He has responsibility for creating thematic-based investment strategies for future products and mandates.

Tom sits on the European Real Estate Investment Committee and is chair of the Global Proptech Working Group. He articulates our thought-leadership views externally to clients, prospects, and the wider market in pitches, presentations, seminars, articles, white papers, podcasts, and other media formats.

Tom joined Cromwell in 2021 from Mayfair Capital/Swiss Life, where he spent four years and was latterly Director of Strategy and Innovation responsible for UK and European research. Prior to this, he spent two years as an Associate Director in JLL’s UK Corporate Research team. He also has experience working in Australia in a research role and in property economics with Colliers International and Hill PDA respectively.

Tom holds an MA in Property Development from the University of Technology (UTS) Sydney, an MA in Town and Country Planning from the University of Sheffield, and a BA in Human Geography from Nottingham Trent University.

Head of Central and Eastern Europe

Skills and Experience

Justyna was appointed Head of CEE in 2021 and is responsible for growing the company’s business and managing the local team throughout the CEE region. This includes operations in Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia.

Justyna joined Cromwell in 2013 from GE Real Estate rising to Head of Finance, CEE. She had a brief interlude with Multi Corporation in a similar role before returning to Cromwell in 2019.

Justyna has 14 years’ experience in finance, working with multi-national teams across controllership, tax and strategic planning. Her diverse experience includes real estate transactions, debt negotiation and managing projects from financial modelling, systems implementation, change management to process improvement.

Justyna holds a Masters degree in Management from University of Gdańsk, is a graduate of the GE Financial Management Programme and a previous member of ACCA.

Head of Northern Europe

Skills and Experience

Pontus is responsible for growing the company’s business and managing the local team throughout the Nordics region which includes offices in Copenhagen, Helsinki, Malmo and Stockholm, the UK, the Benelux and the CEE region.

Pontus joined Cromwell in 2011 as Group Accountant for Sweden and became Head of Finance for Sweden just over two years later. He was then appointed Head of Finance for the entire Nordics region in early-2017.

He has held the role of Interim Head of Nordics since the beginning of 2020 and during this time, successfully managed Cromwell’s initial COVID-19 response in the region while also further increasing the depth and experience of the local team.

Pontus holds a Master of Business and Economics from Lund University. Prior to joining Cromwell, he worked at Deloitte for five years.

Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director CEREIT

Skills and Experience

As CEO and Executive Director of Cromwell EREIT Management Pte Ltd, Simon is responsible for the strategic direction of CEREIT and provides recommendations to CEREIT’s Trustee on the acquisition, divestment, development and/or enhancement of CEREIT’s assets in accordance with its investment strategy.

Mr. Garing has over 25 years of investment management, financial markets, and accounting experience in the global real estate industry. He was appointed CEO and Executive Director of Cromwell EREIT Management Pte Ltd, the manager of the eponymous S-REIT, in September 2018, after a period as acting CEO. The SGX listed REIT had gross asset of €2.4 billion or SGD3.5 billion as at 30 June 2021, invested in 108 logistics/light industrial and office assets in 10 European countries. Simon joined Cromwell Property Group Australia as its Chief Capital Officer in December 2017, where he was responsible for capital management and fund raising for capital markets, as well as public and private fund initiatives.

A proven capital markets manager, investor, and analyst, Mr. Garing was previously the Managing Director of Bank of America Merrill Lynch Asia Pacific (“APAC”) and Bank of America Merrill Lynch Australia. He was also the Chair of the bank’s APAC Recommendation Review Committee, managing around 130 equity analysts who evaluated and analysed approximately 1,200 companies spanning several asset classes and industry sectors across 12 APAC countries.

Prior to that, he held several senior roles at leading financial advisory firms and investment banks. These include appointments as Managing Director of Bell Potter, where he founded its Institutional Real Estate Investment Advisory, Research, Sales and Trading team; Executive Director at Babcock & Brown, where he was also Global Co-Head of Real Estate; as well as Managing Director of UBS Australia, where he was also Co-Head of Global Real Estate Research.

Mr. Garing holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Accounting and Finance) degree from the University of New South Wales, and is a Fellow of CPA Australia as well as a member of The Hong Kong Institute of Directors. Simon is based in Singapore.

Head of Risk, Europe

Skills and Experience

Robin Macpherson joined Cromwell in 2016 from the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), where he held the role of Head of Legal, Large Corporate and Sectors, UK and Western Europe.

Robin has extensive corporate law and transactional experience for high profile banking institutions and private equity firms. At RBS, he designed and advised on appropriate models for managing risk in a regulated environment, advised on the active management of £29 billion of assets and oversaw legal and risk issues relating to 14 Western European jurisdictions.

As Cromwell’s Head of Risk, Europe, Robin oversees all legal, risk, compliance and governance issues affecting the European business, ensuring standards of good corporate governance are in place and maintained. Since joining Cromwell, Robin has launched the firm’s first open-ended fund in Luxembourg (and the jurisdiction’s first RAIF), managed the UK Alternative Investment Fund Management (AIFM) business and secured a licence from the Luxembourg regulator for a new AIFM. Robin holds a law degree from the University of Birmingham.