Los Angeles-based investor CIM Group has hired two executives with deep international capital markets experience to help court global investors.
CIM Group named two managing directors to lead business and investor relations internationally, with Melannie Pyzik tapped for the Asia-Pacific region, and Albert Yang for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Both stepped into their newly created positions last month.
CIM Group owns and operates $30.2 billion of assets in the U.S. and Europe, of which $15 billion is real estate, $7.2 billion is infrastructure and $8.3 billion is credit. About 4% of the company's investment clients are sovereign wealth funds. Another 4% comes from global insurance companies.
The hires come at a time when some international investors are showing less interest in North American properties.
The volume of foreign capital flowing into North American real estate slid 58% year-over-year in the first half of 2024 to $5.25 billion — the lowest first half total since 2012 —thanks in large part to Asia-Pacific investors focusing more on domestic assets, according to CBRE.
Pyzik, with 25 years of experience in global real estate investment including energy, utilities, transportation and digital infrastructure, will be based in Sydney. Albert Yang, meanwhile, brings more than 23 years of experience in private markets to the job and will be based in London.
International experience
Before joining CIM Group, Pyzik was co-lead partner and head of the investor solutions team at New York City-based Argo Infrastructure Partners, where she also served on the firm’s investment committee.
Earlier, Pyzik held senior roles in the infrastructure group at Australian sovereign debt fund QICand and in the pensions coverage group at Credit Suisse.
Pyzik launched her career at Australian finance giant Macquarie Group, where she spent almost a decade in the investment banking group. She is looking forward to working with "sophisticated investors in the region showing strong demand for alternatives and private markets strategies,” she said in a statement.
Before joining CIM, Yang was head of investor relations for the EMEA markets at Chicago-based infrastructure investment firm Harrison Street, where he co-founded the firm's European platform.
Yang has also worked as head of business development for Barings, and in senior positions in the real estate departments at JP Morgan Asset Management, Nuveen, Schroders and Deutsche Bank.