Cornerstone appoints new European funds director

Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers Europe has appointed Rachel Arden-Davis as its finance and operations director for pan-European funds.

Arden-Davis joins from AXA Real Estate, where she has spent 10 years rising to become senior fund controller. Prior to that, the chartered accountant was with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Frankfurt and London, where she managed transactions for private equity and corporate clients.

Her London-based role at Cornerstone will involve structuring, financing and operating the investor’s European real estate funds.

“She will immediately have responsibility for the financial management of the Nordic Retail Fund and will play a leading role in the formation and financial management of future pan-European funds,” said Cornerstone.

It is the second recent hire from AXA in recent months. In June, Jorge Duarte joined from AXA Real Estate, where he managed six funds, to be responsible for both fund-raising and deployment of capital at Cornerstone.

Duarte was hired to help Cornerstone launch a core pan-European fund and a value-add fund. Both will be seeded with capital from Cornerstone’s parent Massachusetts Mutual Insurance with between $100m and $200m each.

Arden-Davis’ appointment also follows other recent hires in Europe by Cornerstone, including Albert Yang as managing director and head of business development in Europe, and Valeria Falcone as head of Italy.

“Rachel joins at a time of continued growth at Cornerstone – both globally and here in Europe. We’ve made several senior hires in recent months and expect this to continue in line with our expansion plans,” said Charles Weeks, chief executive of Cornerstone Europe.

Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers Europe is a subsidiary of US property investor and asset manager, Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers, which has $49bn under management.