Nuveen hires head of debt

Nuveen Real Estate has appointed Dugald Marr as the local head of debt to grow its US$538.5 million Australasia debt portfolio.

He will invest client capital for pooled funds and separate accounts and oversee the deployment of Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America's debt allocations into Australia.

Marr joins from Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank Australia, where he spent almost 13 years leading the institutional real estate financing team.

Before that, in 207, he worked at the Royal Bank of Scotland as the director for structured real estate finance.

Earlier, he worked for several law firms covering real estate, banking and finance.

Commenting on the new appointment, Jack Gay, global head of debt at Nuveen, said rising interest rates amid heightened uncertainty will provide more attractive real estate debt opportunities.

"Dugald's appointment will complement our existing team in growing our platform and strategy to include third-party capital alongside our parent TIAA," he said.

Nuveen global commercial real estate debt platform invests across the capital structure, seeking income-focused, stable, and attractive, risk-adjusted total returns for investors through a diversified portfolio of investments.

Globally, the platform has assets under management of US$44 billion.

As of the 2022 second quarter, the fund has assets under management of US$6.7 billion in the Asia Pacific in real estate equity and debt.