Hillbreak strengthens team with trio of new associates

September 7, 2022/in News, Press Releases

Hillbreak is pleased to announce a hatrick of new hires with Alastair Mant, Sophie Overington and Heidi Kruitwagen all joining the firm’s panel of industry-leading associates, strengthening the breadth and depth of its advisory and client learning teams.

Mant joins from the UK Green Building Council, where he was Director of Business Transformation and on the leadership team for nearly six years. During this time he led numerous projects to provide the industry with tools and guidance to radically improve sustainability on topics including net zero carbon, the circular economy, climate resilience, green infrastructure and innovation.

He will play a key role in the delivery of Hillbreak’s client learning programmes alongside former LaSalle European ESG chief, Sophie Carruth, including the hugely successful BBP ESG Training for Real Estate Professionals. He will also draw upon his unique experience to support Hillbreak’s consulting team on strategic advisory projects. Prior to his time at UKGBC, he was Director and Head of Sustainability at GVA (now Avison Young).

Overington will also support the development and delivery of Hillbreak’s client learning programmes as a Senior Consultant. She formerly held roles as ESG Manager at the Australian REIT, Stockland, as well as at the Green Building Council of Australia and GRESB where she worked respectively to optimise the Real Estate Assessment and develop the GRESB Public Disclosure Scorecard. Most recently, she was Senior Consultant at Carbon Intelligence where she provided advice and support to several major institutional real estate and financial services clients.

Kruitwagen is focused on Hilllbreak’s ESG integration and impact advisory engagements and brings 20 years of experience as an Impact and equity market investment professional. She has a diverse background in analysis, strategy and relationship management in both listed and private equity markets across Europe, North America and East Africa. She is a Chartered Financial Analyst and holds the CFA ESG Certificate. Her track record includes spearheading UBS’ Pan-European Smaller company strategy that created corporate finance and trading revenue of US$50m per annum, by integrating seven regional European analyst teams of 120 people into one multi-locational regional unit with standardised origination, research and investment processes, and a long-term sustainable growth investment policy.

The trio of new hires follows the recent appointment of Lynn O’Halloran as Executive Assistant to Jon Lovell, who has taken the role of Managing Director as part of a governance refresh. Miles Keeping becomes Executive Chairman.

Commenting on the new appointments, Jon Lovell, Managing Director of Hillbreak, said:

We’re thrilled and humbled in equal measure to be able to announce the appointment of three such well respected and talented people. Those who know our firm well are aware of our highly selective approach to the work that we do and the unwavering focus we have on quality. These new hires are entirely consistent with that ethos and we’re really excited by the prospects we have for further enriching our client learning and advisory work with them.

Miles Keeping, Executive Chairman, added:

Having the ability to attract such incredible talent to join the team is testament to the quality of the business that we continue to build at Hillbreak. Our clients have become used to the very demanding standards we set ourselves and I have no doubt that Alastair, Heidi and Sophie will be a perfect fit, further enabling us to deliver the best-in-class service our clients have come to expect.

Mant said:

I’m excited to work with Jon, Miles, Sophie, and the rest of the fantastic team at Hillbreak. Real estate must play a significant role in this crucial decade of action on the climate, nature, and social crises and so I look forward to helping asset owners, managers and advisors accelerate their personal and organisational sustainability journeys.

Overington commented:

Hillbreak operates at the strategic forefront of the real estate industry and it’s exciting to be joining such a dynamic team at a time where ESG is so clearly on the agenda of companies and financial market participants. I’m really looking forward to collaborating with clients to continue advancing our collective impact.

Kruitwagen added:

I am delighted and honoured to join the team at Hillbreak. I look forward to contributing towards the further growth of the firm and ensuring vigour and depth of its ESG integration and client learning streams whilst maintaining the innate professionalism that Hillbreak is renowned for.

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