DWS strengthens Asia Pacific real estate team with senior appointments

DWS has named new heads of real estate.

Junghoon (Phil) Kook has been appointed as head of real estate, Korea, and Leiting Deng has been appointed head of real estate, Singapore.

Kook joined DWS in 2021 and has 18 years of industry experience. Since joining DWS, he has led the transactions team in Korea helping to grow DWS’s real estate footprint locally. As head of the Korean real estate platform, he will join DWS Korea’s board of directors and will continue to spearhead the local transactions team as well as expand into new sectors. Prior to joining DWS, Kook was the head of real estate and structured finance division at Shinhan Asset Management, where he led both overseas and domestic investments as well as capital raising. During his 3.5-year tenure at Shinhan, he established a total of nine funds, accumulating approximately $1.5 billion in value.

Deng joined DWS in 2013 and has more than 16 years of real estate experience. Her expanded role will see her continue as a portfolio manager for the Asian funds business in addition to overseeing the growth of the Singapore real estate platform. Previously, she covered the Australian and Chinese markets in transactions and asset management. Prior to joining DWS, Deng was the portfolio manager of a real estate core fund at LaSalle Investment Management and an investment and asset management analyst at CapitaMall Trust (now CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust).

Both appointments follow the appointment of George Anastasiou as head of real estate, Australia, in August 2022.