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Michael Back
Senior Advisor at Herbert Smith FreehillsMichael is a senior partner specialising in real estate, infrastructure and fund investment transactions across Asia Pacific.
Michael Back is a real estate and funds lawyer with in-depth knowledge and experience in all aspects of real estate investment, development, planning, environment and asset management. He has acted for the government and private sectors in all major asset classes including commercial office, retail, hospitality, logistics and alternative sectors such as affordable and student housing and build-to-rent. Michael also co-leads our Asia real estate practice. Michael has a reputation for being a problem solver, easy to work with, identifying issues early and getting deals done in a way that satisfies the client’s commercial drivers.
Sameer Chopra
Head of Pacific Research at CBRESameer is Head of Pacific Research at CBRE, where he leads the team providing market insights on real estate trends and values. Prior to this, he was Head of Australian Research at Bank of America. Sameer has an MBA from INSEAD and Bachelors of Commerce (Hons) from the Australian National University.
DC
Dale Connor
Chief Operating Officer & Chief Executive Officer, Construction at LendleaseYF
Yu Fujii
Managing Director, Country Head of Australia at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation
Andrew Gauci
Chairman, Japan | Executive Director, Development Partnerships of Lendlease | Board Director, AJBCCAndrew assumed his present position as Chairman Japan & Executive Director, Development Partnerships in July 2024 after 17 years as the Managing Director and CEO of the Lendlease business in Japan. During his tenure the business in Japan has seen tremendous growth and diversification, from a leading Project Management provider to becoming a successful Real Estate Investment and Development organization. This diversification includes Japan’s first independent telecoms tower company, a major data center development, R&D and office value add conversions.
Through his extensive relationships in Japan, Andrew has facilitated Japanese capital investing into Lendlease products in London, New York, Sydney and Melbourne. With over A$12 billion in end value projects invested to date, his current role will focus on growing these partnerships to facilitate new investments and real estate development across diverse product lines including Build to Rent, Office, Industrial, Data Centers and Apartments.
Andrew served as the Chair of Australia New Zealand Chamber of Commerce in Japan from 2016 to 2019 and currently sits on the Executive Committee of the Australia Japan Business Corporation Committee (AJBCC).
Patrick Giles-Jones
Japan Business Services Oceania Leader at EY AustraliaPatrick leads EY’s Japan Business Services for Oceania, serving Japanese headquartered companies across various industries for all of EY’s service offerings, in particular assisting Japanese multinational companies seeking to invest and/or establish operations in Oceania.
Patrick in fluent in Japanese and has over 18 years experience advising clients on international tax / transfer pricing and M&A matters having worked extensively in both Japan and Australia.
Brett McCarthy
Principal at Yandina | Chair of the AJBCC Real Estate Advisory CommitteeNM
Yuzo Nishiyama
Executive Director - Head of Australia at Mitsubishi Estate AsiaYuzo has been at Mitsubishi Estate for almost 20 years working across several key international markets including the US, Singapore and Australia, as well as Japan.
Yuzo has been the Head of Australia for Mitsubishi Estate Asia for the past several years, where he has been responsible for significantly growing and diversifying Mitsubishi Estate’s investing platform across both traditional office, apartments, master planned communities sectors, along with the emerging living sectors of build-to-rent and land lease communities. The combined end value of Mitsubishi Estate’s investments in Australia is more than $12 billion.
During his time in Australia, Yuzo has initiated and led Mitsubishi Estate Asia’s partnerships with best-in-class groups including Lendlease, Mirvac, Stockland, Investa and PERIFA.
Nathan Parris
Managing Partner at Emerge CapitalNathan is a real estate professional with over 25 years of experience at international real estate firms Lendlease, Morgan Stanley, CapitaLand and Taubman Centres. He has spent half his career living and working in Asia (including Japan) while nurturing long-term relationships with key institutions.
Nathan has developed extensive experience in the commercial, retail, residential and mixed-use sectors through a comprehensive track record across key real estate disciplines, including origination, transactions, funds management, asset management, development, and property management. He has worked on many high-profile and complex real estate projects involving development, financing and governance / stakeholder management and completed over $30bn of transactions in Australia, Asia, and the Middle East.
Most notably, Nathan has actively supported numerous market-leading Japanese real estate development companies with their Australian real estate investments – including preparing market entry strategies, executing joint-venture transactions and providing ongoing investment oversight. Nathan also has extensive experience placing Japanese capital for Australian real estate groups across various capital raising processes.