• Gordon Driedger, president of Skyline Retail REIT, will step down and transition into a new role with the organization, effective June 30. Driedger spent eight years as the Guelph, Ont.-based REIT’s president. He will continue to help oversee the REIT in his new position as a trustee. Craig Leslie, currently the REIT’s vice-president, will be promoted to president, effective July 1. Leslie joined Skyline in 2023 from Morguard, where he served as director of retail asset management. He has about two decades of commercial real estate industry experience in Canada and the U.K. His other employers have included RioCan REIT, Deloitte, Cushman & Wakefield, and CBRE. He has experience in asset management, real estate valuation and advisory, analysis and acquisition management. Skyline Retail REIT is operated and managed by the Skyline Group. The company controls a number of other REITs and invests in a wide array of commercial property sectors.

• Michael Klingher resigned as president and CEO of R&R REIT to pursue other endeavours and was immediately replaced by Irfan Lakha. Klingher spent 10 years at R&R’s helm. He remains a significant R&R unitholder. Lakha has served as an R&R trustee since 2015. He returns to the executive team after vacating his former CFO post in 2015 following a two-year tenure.

• Savills has appointed Ruth Fischer as president of its Canadian operations. Fischer has about two decades of commercial real estate industry experience in Canada and the U.S. She will oversee the firm’s Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Edmonton offices as well as its future markets and current and future service lines. Fischer moved to Savills from CBRE, where she spent 14 years performing executive, management, director and consultant roles in Montreal and Toronto. Her wide range of expertise includes brokerage, urban planning, client diagnostics, portfolio, and workplace strategy.

• Nicole Christy has been appointed as the new CEO of the Ottawa Real Estate Board, effective June 1. Christy will move to OREB after serving for the past three years as vice-president of corporate governance and leadership development with the London and St. Thomas (Ontario) Association of Realtors (LSTAR.) Before moving into the VP role, she served as LSTAR’s director of learning and leadership development. She has also worked in government relations, communications and IT roles with the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, and the Canadian Home Builders’ Association. Christy will succeed Janice Myers, who left OREB, after a decade with the organization, at year-end 2023 to become CEO of CREA.

• Capstone Asset Management has added finance and property specialists James Jung and Clayton Rutquist to its investment team. Jung has assumed the role of senior portfolio manager. He joined Langley, B.C.-based Capstone from Calgary-headquartered Avenue Living Asset Management, where he was CEO of its LOGYX Management Solutions division. He has also served as chief investment officer for Pinnacle Wealth Brokers and senior vice-president of energy and banking with DBRS. Meanwhile, Rutquist has been appointed director of real estate investments. During his 24-year career, he has led about $1 billion worth of debt financings and direct real estate investments. He moved to Capstone after serving as a commercial advisor with Ashdown Capital, which operates in B.C. and Alberta. His previous employers include GE Real Estate, HSBC, CIBC and Argus Properties.

Get Ready for Canada Kick-off

Connect CRE will hold its inaugural Canada Kick-off Event in Toronto on June 11. This will be Connect’s first commercial real estate industry conference in Canada. Panelists will include Syl Apps, managing director and co-country head for Hines; Lindsay Brand, chief investment officer at Concert Properties; Mark Kenney, CEO of Canadian Apartment Properties REIT; and, Marie-France Benoit, Avison Young’s director of Canadian market intelligence. Come and gain insights from industry leaders on such matters as buyer sentiment amid a lower interest-rate environment, cross-border commercial real estate transaction trends, and investors’ outlook for 2024 and beyond. Register today.