European Real Estate

Mr. O’Donnell is a Vice President and Senior Managing Director of HMC and he is the Senior Managing Director of its European Real Estate Investment team. He is also a member of the European Real Estate Investment Committee. Mr. O’Donnell joined HMC in 2002 and is responsible for the day-to-day activities of HMC’s European real estate advisory affiliate. Prior to joining HMC, Mr. O’Donnell served as a Managing Director of Credit Suisse First Boston (“CSFB”) in London and as the European Head and Investment Committee Member (International) of DLJ Real Estate Capital Partners (“RECP”), a manager of real estate private equity funds with $2 billion of equity under management. During his tenure at CSFB, he was responsible for managing all of the activities and formulating the strategy for RECP’s European operations. Prior to his employment at CSFB, Mr. O’Donnell was a Director in the London office of Deutsche Bank’s Real Estate Opportunities Group where he was responsible for originating and executing principal investments throughout Europe. Prior to relocating to Europe with Bankers Trust/Deutsche Bank in 1997, Mr. O’Donnell worked for Kenneth Leventhal & Co., a boutique real estate consulting firm, where he specialized in debt restructurings and advising on the acquisition and disposition of portfolios of distressed debt typically secured by real estate assets throughout North America. Mr. O’Donnell has 25 years of real estate experience, and his background includes several investments in assets (both property and distressed debt) and operating businesses (e.g., hotels and real estate operating companies) on a pan-European basis. He has invested in all major real estate asset classes and has led or been actively involved in the acquisition of over $8 billion of real estate and real estate-related assets in Europe and the U.S. In addition, he has extensive experience in debt restructurings and has been a member of unsecured creditors committees. Mr. O’Donnell graduated summa cum laude from The George Washington University in 1986 with a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Mr. Rotaeche joined HMC’s European Real Estate Investment Team in 2007 and is responsible for HMC’s activities in Spain and Portugal. He has experience in sourcing, closing, financing properties and setting up joint ventures throughout the region. Mr. Rotaeche has been active in Spanish real estate investment since 2000 involving office, retail, logistics, hotel and residential asset classes. Prior to joining HMC, Mr. Rotaeche worked at CB Richard Ellis where he held the position of Institutional Investment Director for Spain and set up and managed Spain’s leading real estate investments group with specialist teams devoted to office, logistics, residential and hotels. During his tenure he led or sourced several deals including the design and structuring of most of the large corporate sale and leaseback transactions which took place in the period 2005 to 2007. He also provided strategic investment advice to several core and private equity funds ranging from acquisition advice to active asset management of their Spanish holdings. Mr. Rotaeche holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Instituto de Empresa and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Studies from London Metropolitan University. He is fluent in both Spanish and English.

Mr. Desautel joined the HMC European Real Estate Investment team in November 2007. Previously, he held the position of Senior Asset Manager with the French affiliate of Westbrook Partners. He has twelve years of experience in commercial and residential real estate acquisitions throughout France. Before that, he spent three years with Stern Stewart & Co, a New York-based management consultancy, both in their Paris and New York offices. Prior to joining Stern Stewart, he spent a year and a half based in Paris with Archon Group, a Goldman Sachs company, as a real estate acquisition analyst. Eric received an MBA in Finance from Columbia Business School and an M.S. from ESCP in Paris. He is fluent in both French and English.

Mr. King joined the Harbert European Real Estate team in November 2007. Since joining the team, David has managed acquisitions and dispositions of approximately €3 billion in value. Prior to joining HMC he worked in London for the real estate finance team at Ernst & Young and the real estate investment banking team at JPMorgan Cazenove. He graduated in 2004 from the London School of Economics and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Geography and Economics.

Mr. Benevides joined the Harbert European Real Estate team in January 2020 and is responsible for Portfolio Management. Prior to joining HMC he was a Portfolio Manager at Kennedy Wilson Europe with responsibility for deal analytics, execution, and reporting for their €4.7 billion European business. Prior to joining Kennedy Wilson Europe, he held investment and portfolio management roles at CBRE Global Investors and GE Capital Real Estate in the U.S. and Europe; specializing in complex fund and deal structuring for value-add and opportunistic investments. Ryan is also a member and former Chairman of the ReimTech Roundtable, where member organizations focus on the application of cutting-edge technology in real estate investment management. He graduated from Bentley University with a Bachelor of Science in Finance.

Mr. Davies joined the HMC European Real Estate Investment team in September 2006 from Hatfield Philips International where he managed a number of the UK and mainland European assets and loans of the Principal Transaction Group of Lehman Brothers. He qualified as a Chartered Surveyor in 1986. Prior to working at HPI, Huw spent over 20 years in private real estate practice becoming an equity director in the Investment Department of Gooch Webster. In his private real estate practice he mainly concentrated on the acquisition, disposal and valuation of investment properties for property companies, institutions and banks. He graduated in Economics from Cardiff University and in Land Economy from Cambridge University.

Ms. Clemente joined HMC’s European Real Estate Investment team in June 2015 and is responsible for overseeing the implementation of asset management strategies for investments across Europe.
Prior to joining HMC, she was Associate Director of Asset Management at AEW Europe, with responsibility over a portfolio of c.€1bn of assets under management in Spain, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Poland and Czech Republic. She led JV and operating partners to achieve target returns within the private equity funds through active lease, development, investment and sales management.
Prior to joining AEW, she spent 5 years at Prologis in different roles including Asset and Development Manager for Southern Europe where she managed a portfolio of c.€2bn in France, Italy and Spain. She led the acquisition and development of a 1M square metre mixed-use development where she served as Chairman of the Board.
She also has significant experience in retail investment, strategy and operations having worked at leading retailer Perimercados and Motion Retail Stores, which she co-founded.
Ms Clemente holds an MBA from INSEAD, a Masters of Industrial Engineering degree from University of Costa Rica and is a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). She is fluent in Spanish, English and Italian.

Mr. Gross joined the Harbert European Real Estate team in June 2015. Prior to joining HMC, he worked at the financial real estate advisory and debt restructuring firm Irea as an analyst specializing in the hotel sector throughout Spain. Previously he worked in New York for the Credit Risk and Project Finance team at Banco Santander.

He graduated in 2013 from the Universidad Pontificia de Comillas (ICADE E-2) with a degree in Business Administration.

Mr. Humphrey joined the Harbert European Real Estate team in September 2018. Prior to joining HMC he worked in London for the real estate investment team at Patrizia and the real estate finance team at Anglo Irish Bank. He graduated from the University of East Anglia and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business, Finance and Economics and holds a Master of Science degree in Real Estate from the University of Portsmouth.

Mrs. de Moussac joined HMC’s European Real Estate Investment Team in January 2019 and is responsible for implementing value-creating strategies for French portfolio assets. Prior to joining HMC, she spent four years with the Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield group in their Paris and Amsterdam offices, where she led or was actively involved in the asset management of flagship shopping destinations and exhibition venues. She was also charged with developing new mixed-use investment opportunities. Previously she worked on limited-recourse financings in the Energy and Infrastructure Project Finance team at Credit Agricole CIB in both Paris and New York. She holds an MBA from ESSEC Business School in Paris and is fluent in French and English.

Mr. Amzallag-Asch joined HMC’s European Real Estate Investment Team in October 2020 and is responsible for due diligence and underwriting for French acquisitions. Prior to joining HMC, he spent four years with Savills Investment Management in London where he gained experience in asset acquisitions in various sectors and multiple European jurisdictions as well as implemented asset management initiatives. Previously, he completed four six-month internships in Paris with Accor Hotels, JLL, AXA IM Real Assets and AEW Europe. He holds a Master in Management – Grande Ecole from NEOMA Business School and is fluent in French, English and has an intermediate level of Spanish.

Ms. Xuereb joined HMC’s European Real Estate Investment team in September 2013. Prior to joining HMC, Ms. Xuereb worked at CBRE Global Investors where she most recently was an associate fund controller responsible for overseeing all fund accounting and financial information for two closed ended pooled UK property funds with a total initial capital contribution of £650 million. Prior to her role as fund controller, she was a fund accountant at CBRE Global Investors where she was responsible for the financial reporting to 13 institutional pension fund investors (including FTSE 100 companies) within the managed accounts business unit which had £4.5 billion of assets under management. Prior to joining CBRE Global Investors, she worked as a financial accountant and assistant fund accountant at Catalyst Capital LLP, a private real estate investment and asset management firm.

Ms. Xuereb is a Fellow Member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA).  She graduated from Chapman University in California with a Bachelors of Science degree in Business Management with an emphasis in Management.

Mr. Christie joined the Harbert European Real Estate team in April 2018 and is responsible for overseeing the financial management of Fund investments in continental Europe. Previously he worked with real estate and private equity clients in the audit department of KPMG in Jersey and in the transaction department of PwC in Malta. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant in South Africa in 2013 and as a Chartered Financial Analyst with the CFA Institute in 2016.

Mr. Re joined the Harbert European Real Estate team in April 2022. Prior to joining HMC, Mr. Re worked at Logicor where he most recently was a Senior Finance Manager responsible for overseeing the accounting and financial information for the Italian Logistics portfolio and part of the UK Logistics portfolio. Prior to Logicor, Mr. Re worked as an Account Manager at Blackstone Real Estate Europe responsible for overseeing the accounting of part of the Italian portfolio (retail, office and logistics). Prior to Blackstone Real Estate Europe, he worked at TMF Luxembourg as a Senior Accountant responsible for the accounting of real estate companies.

Mr. Re is a Member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) since 2019. He graduated with honors from Catholic University of Sacred Heart in Piacenza (Italy) and holds a Master’s degree in International Business Administration with an emphasis in Management. Mr. Re is fluent in English, Italian and French.