Paladin hires new Brazil head

The Los Angeles-based real estate fund manager has recruited a new managing director to oversee its Brazil office, replacing Axel Chaves, who left earlier this month.

Paladin Realty Partners has tapped Ricardo Raoul as a managing director and head of its Brazil operations. He succeeds Axel Chaves, who had led the firm’s Brazil office since March 2010. Raoul is expected to start sometime in April.

Raoul, who will be based in Paladin’s São Paulo office, previously was a managing partner at Muriqui Investimentos, a real estate investment, venture capital and growth equity firm based in the city. In that position, he had worked with Paladin on an office building joint venture from 2007 to 2012. Prior to that, he was executive vice president for business development at Cushman & Wakefield, where he helped build that firm’s operations in Brazil, Argentina and Chile.

“With the recent closing of our fourth Latin America fund, Ricardo joins us at the perfect time,” said James Worms, Paladin’s chairman and chief executive, in a statement. “His experience and regional expertise augment our already considerable capabilities in Brazil’s property sector and will help generate co-investment opportunities for our clients.”

The new hire follows the appointment of Alejandro Krell as head of Paladin’s Central and South American operations ex Brazil earlier this month. Krell replaced PJ Sala, who along with Chaves and Joel Bost have departed or will be departing Paladin to join Jamestown’s new Latin American subsidiary, Jamestown Latin America. All three executives, along with Phil Fitzgerald, Paladin’s former managing director of emerging markets, and another Paladin managing director, Ferhat Guven, will serve on Jamestown Latin America’s senior management team.