RREEF swaps global head

RREEF, the €40 billion real estate management business of Deutsche Bank, has appointed Pierre Cherki as its new global head.

Cherki has been promoted from head of Europe, Middle East and Asia Pacific, and will relocate from London to New York, the firm said in a statement.

[The Greenprint] initiative that I, together with Deutsche Asset Management and Deutsche Bank, feel passionately about. RREEF veteran Chuck Leitner

Current head, RREEF veteran Chuck Leitner, will remain with the bank as RREEF chairman and senior adviser after being appointed chief executive of the non-profit Greenprint Foundation, an alliance of real estate owners, investors and financial institutions which aims to reduce carbon emissions in the industry.

Leitner, who has been at RREEF for 20 years, has been on the board of Greenprint since it was founded in 2009. Its members include private equity real estate firms, including RREEF, Aetos Capital, Beacon Capital Partners and Hines.

In a letter to investors, Leitner said he had taken on the Greenprint role to help drive “the change required to reduce our industry’s collective carbon footprint while adding real value to our portfolios.

“This is an initiative that I, together with Deutsche Asset Management and Deutsche Bank, feel passionately about,” he said. In handing over his day-to-day responsibilties to Cherki, he said: “In Pierre, I am convinced RREEF has the experienced and energetic leadership required to take the business to a new phase of growth.”

Kevin Parker, global head of Deutsche Bank Asset Management, added in a corporate statement that the Greenprint alliance was of “paramount importance” with real estate contributing one-third of all carbon emissions globally. “Reducing that footprint is perhaps the most significant contribution anyone can make to the reduction of greenhouse gasses globally,” he said.

Cherki joined Deutsche Bank in 1997 when it took over Bankers Trust. Having run the French and CEE region for RREEF, he was elevated in 2007 to co-head of the European platform alongside Chris Papachristophorou. He later assumed that role alone, while Papachristophorou became global head of RREEF opportunistic investments.