LaSalle announces CEO succession for its European business
LaSalle Investment Management has announced that following a successful 12-year period as CEO for Europe, Simon Marrison will transition to assume a chairman role for the business.
Karen Brennan, head of Americas custom accounts for LaSalle, has been appointed to succeed Marrison as the firm’s CEO for Europe, effective June 30, 2019. Marrison will remain in the chairman advisory role and work closely with Brennan to ensure a seamless leadership transition.
“I believe that it is important to refresh leadership in any business, and I am genuinely proud of the growth and improvement our team have achieved over the past 12 years,” said Marrison, outgoing Europe CEO of LaSalle. “With the business on such firm footing, now is an opportune time for a talented leader with a global perspective to take it to the next level, and I look forward to working closely with Karen in the future to build on our collective momentum.”
Under Marrison’s leadership, LaSalle’s European business has seen significant growth and diversification, doubling its assets under management from $10 billion to more than $20 billion during the period. In addition to serving on LaSalle’s global management committee, Marrison has sat on all European investment committees and chaired the European management board. Marrison joined LaSalle in 2001 and has operated six funds in the region, launched the Continental European separate accounts business as well as the debt and special situations business that now has a flagship fund series, and grown the firm’s pan-European Encore+ fund to a GAV of more than $2 billion.
In her new role, Brennan will have overall responsibility for LaSalle’s $22 billion AUM pan-European private equity real estate business and will join LaSalle’s nine-person global management committee. She will be based in London and will also oversee the firm’s teams in the United Kingdom, Paris, Munich and Luxembourg, and travel regularly to the markets in which LaSalle operates and invests.
Brennan joined LaSalle in 1999 and has successfully held a variety of leadership, investment, asset and portfolio management roles across the organization. From 2008–2012, she relocated to the firm’s Singapore and Hong Kong offices where she held the role of portfolio manager, ex-Japan, for LaSalle’s Asia Opportunity Funds, and played a critical role in the restructuring and stabilization of the region’s business following the global financial crisis. More recently, she has led LaSalle’s Americas custom accounts group, which includes some of the firm’s largest and longest-standing institutional investor clients and has increased its AUM over 30 percent to nearly $10 billion.
Jeff Jacobson, LaSalle global CEO, said, “Simon has played a pivotal role in LaSalle’s growth and success in Europe over his decade-plus leadership of the business. As he elects to transition from day-to-day management of the business, I am extremely pleased that we have such a strong successor in Karen Brennan and that illustrates our commitment to succession planning and providing career opportunities to our top talent throughout the world. I am confident that Simon’s mentorship and Karen’s proven investment, client and leadership skills will lead LaSalle to continued growth and success in Europe.”
