James has deep real estate experience across all sectors having worked as a principal in the establishment and growth of the Macquarie Group’s Real Estate Investment Management business where he was an Executive Director and Business Head. Over his 16 years in this business James successfully led transactions in many aspects of the real estate value chain across multiple sectors in Australia, Asia and the United States.
Specialization: Investment
Stephen Girdis
Stephen has over 30 years experience in real estate asset management, financing, development, investment banking and chartered accounting, mainly at the Macquarie Group. He has held various senior positions including Executive Director of the Group, Global Head of Real Estate and Chairman of Real Estate, including serving as Chairman and Director of related ASX and SGX listed entities. During his leadership, global assets under management (including partnerships) grew tenfold to over $A30 billion. He was closely involved with the growth of Macquarie’s Asian real estate platforms, including joint ventures with Wanda Group, Munich Re, Pacific Star, Goodman Asia, and Pan Asian real estate private equity investment through MGPA and Schroders Asia property. Since retiring from Macquarie in 2012 he has been co-investing with and/or advising Australasian real estate companies.
George Ajaka
George became Managing Partner of White & Partners investments across equity and debt in 2016. He has over 13 years of experience in sourcing and managing real estate investments. George joined White & Partners in 2007 following four years at Towers Watson and KPMG Actuaries. With an Actuarial background, George’s numeric skills allow him not only to develop sophisticated financial valuation and risk models, but assess property investments from both a qualitative and quantitative perspective. George has extensive experience in property development, finance and deal structuring along with property disposal strategies across retail, residential, hotel/pubs and industrial sectors. George is responsible for the performance of White & Partners Investments.
Dan White
In 2001 Dan created what is now White & Partners after gaining senior executive experience with Macquarie Bank and Arthur Andersen. Dan has extensive experience in the acquisition, financing and management of investment-grade real estate in a wide variety of asset classes and across the property cycle. His expertise and relationships span the property markets of Australia and Asia. His clients include significant private interests across the region. Dan is a director of the White Family Group.
Brian White
Brian White is the third generation leader of the Ray White Group, and former chairman of CBRE Australasia. After completing an economics degree at the University of Queensland, Brian joined the family business in 1962. He took over as Managing Director of the company in 1976, and was at the helm when the decision was made to transform the firm into a national real estate group. Today it employs more than 10,000 people in almost 1,000 offices across Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, China, India and the UAE. Brian believes the strongest fulfilment of the company’s ambitions will come through the next generation.