BlackRock has appointed James Wilkinson as European chief investment officer for the firm’s recently launched global real estate securities platform.

With over 15 years of experience in investing in real estate, Wilkinson (pictured) will be responsible for building and leading an investment team for BlackRock’s real estate securities group in Europe.

Wilkinson will join the team in January 2013 and will report to Mark Howard-Johnson, global head of the real estate securities group.
 
BlackRock launched the new platform in June with the appointment of Howard-Johnson and Sherry Rexroad, who joined as US chief investment officer.
 
The platform seeks to identify and pursue investible trends in real estate securities with an intense fundamental approach.
 
Howard-Johnson says: “Following the launch of the global real estate securities platform at BlackRock in June this year, our focus has been on building the team and in turn, BlackRock’s capacity to enable investors to access the asset class.
 
“With his wealth of experience in real estate securities, James is ideally placed to help build out our proposition in Europe. We look forward to welcoming him to the team in the New Year. In addition, we will continue to expand our team’s global footprint with additional talent being added in both Europe and Asia over the intermediate term.”
 
Wilkinson says: “BlackRock has a strong reputation in both real estate and fundamental equity investing and the creation of a real estate securities specialism at the firm is compelling. I am looking forward to joining BlackRock at what is an exciting phase of development for the business.”
 
Wilkinson joins from Thames River Capital, where he has worked since 2004. During his time at the firm, he has helped to establish a new real estate equity fund management business and has managed a number of funds, including the Thames River Real Estate Securities Fund that received a gold grading by S&P Capital IQ. He has also worked at Henderson as a fund manager of real estate securities.