QIC replaces real estate managing director

Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC) has appointed a former Dexus executive as its new real estate managing director.

Deborah Coakley will begin her new role at QIC's $112 billion alternatives platform on October 15.

She previously spent 11 years at Dexus, starting out as executive general manager of people and culture, and moved to customer and marketing, and then chief executive of funds management.

Coakley is also a non-executive director of the Children's Cancer Institute, a member of the National Construction Industry Forum, and is currently vice president of the Property Council of Australia.

Incumbent Michael O'Brien steps down from the position after more than five years.

Before QIC, he was the chief financial officer at ASX-listed Vicinity Centres. He initially joined Vicinity as the chief investment officer and had oversight of a $26 billion portfolio, spread across 62 shopping centres. O'Brien's prior experience includes senior roles at GPT Group and Lendlease retail.

QIC chief executive Kylie Rampa said Coakley's appointment will build on the work of O'Brien and his team to position the real estate platform for continued evolution and growth in alignment with investor objectives.

"QIC manages a significant portfolio of real estate with core and core plus exposures to retail, office and industrial, and Deborah will continue to drive value for our investors across our funds and growing SMA offering, enabling us to work with clients via different investment structures," she said.

"Michael and the team steered the portfolio through the destabilising impacts of COVID-19 and the complex market environment in the years following the pandemic. He also led a number of significant redevelopments at our assets in line with evolving consumer preferences."

QIC recently appointed Julian Loh as sustainability manager overseeing decarbonisation, innovation, and nature, while Timothy Grech is the new sustainability manager for resilience.

Grech worked previously in KPMG's sustainability and climate change team, and for Rail Projects Victoria where he was the sustainability discipline lead.

Loh joined from Cromwell Property Group where he led the global net zero strategy and co-led the group sustainable finance framework to incentivise decarbonisation.

They report to Andrew Sellick, who is the principal of sustainability for global infrastructure.