Head of Transactions, Europe

Skills and Experience

Patrick has broad real estate experience across transactions, fund / portfolio management and debt.  During this time, Patrick has transacted on €2.3bn, managed €1.0bn and been involved in financings totalling €3.6bn.  Patrick’s experience is pan-European, cross-sector, in private and public markets for a breadth of risk profiles with the majority of his experience in the office sector.

Prior to this role, Patrick held the following positions at Cromwell: Portfolio Manager, during which time he was responsible for a portfolio in excess of €1.0 billion; treasury manager; and financial analyst.  Patrick joined Cromwell from Lloyds Banking Group.

Patrick has an MSc in Real Estate Investment and Finance from Henley Business School and a BA Hons from the University of Manchester.

Head of Transactions, France

Skills and Experience

Lionel Naturkrejt is responsible for leading Cromwell’s growth strategy in France, including the disposal and acquisition of all assets throughout the country.

Lionel joined Cromwell in 2021 and has 15 years of experience in real estate investment and asset management. Prior to joining Cromwell, Lionel was a director at Société Générale Real Estate Advisory and spent more than eight years at Allianz Real Estate as head of acquisitions in Western Europe.

Within his different roles, Lionel has been involved in various investment transactions across the office, logistics and light industrial, retail and residential sector across France and Benelux.

Lionel holds a MSc in Finance from HEC Paris.

Managing Director, Europe

Skills and Experience

As Managing Director, Pertti Vanhanen has operational responsibility for running the European business.

Pertti joined Cromwell in 2021 and is a seasoned leader in the real estate industry with over 30 years’ experience. He has held a number of senior roles at a number of leading European management organisations throughout his career, most recently as Global Co-head of Real Estate at Aberdeen Standard Investments.

While at Aberdeen Standard Investments and Aberdeen Asset Management (AAM), Pertti led or was closely involved in several major corporate and real estate transactions, including the merger of AAM and SLI’s real estate divisions, establishing the group’s Asian real estate organisation and the launch of several successful funds and trusts including pan European residential funds, Nordic funds and the first ever open-ended property fund in Finland.

Head of Distribution, Europe

Skills and Experience

Cecile has over 12 years of experience in real estate investment and debt capital markets in the UK, North America, and continental Europe.

Prior to joining Cromwell in June 2023, she co-headed business development at London-based investment firm Long Harbour, where she was responsible for fundraising for the long income and multi-family programmes, articulating the geographic approach to expansion into new regions, establishing strategic partnerships with local operators to source transactions, and authoring in-depth market studies on target locations.

She has held roles as head of product development and investor relations for multiple asset-backed debt originators in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, during which time she also served as an expert witness on a Federal bank fraud case.

Cecile holds an MA in international relations and modern history from the University of St Andrews and an MBA from the University of Cambridge with a focus on cross-border business.

Head of Investment Management, Europe

Skills and Experience

Andrew Creighton is Head of Investment Management, Europe, and is responsible for all aspects of Cromwell’s investment, fund and asset execution and management activity across the European region.

Andrew joined Cromwell in June 2022 and has 25 years’ of real estate investment management experience. His expertise spans over all major investment sectors including logistics, office, retail and residential and across all risk profiles.

Prior to joining Cromwell, Andrew has held several senior leadership roles with the most recent being Head of Investment Management Real Estate at abrdn where he was responsible for managing over €45 billion of AUM and the asset management, development management and transactions teams.

Andrew graduated from Cambridge University in 1990, completed a second degree in Estate Management at Southbank University and qualified as a Chartered Surveyor in 1993.

Head of Southern Europe

Skills and Experience

Michael Bohde is responsible for implementing strategy, growing assets and managing the local teams in Germany, France & Italy, and is member of the European Management Team.

Michael has more than 15 years’ experience in the real estate industry gained from working in a variety of different roles such as financing, transactions, asset management and advisory in the UK, France, and Germany.

Michael holds degrees from the European ESCP Business School and is a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

Head of Research, Strategy & Product

Skills and Experience

As Head of Research, Strategy & Product, Tom is responsible for setting the top-down investment strategy for Cromwell’s international platform by producing house views, research, and insight to advise the business and its investors on market and sector opportunities and risks. He has responsibility for creating thematic-based investment strategies for future products and mandates.

Tom sits on the European Real Estate Investment Committee and is chair of the Global Proptech Working Group. He articulates our thought-leadership views externally to clients, prospects, and the wider market in pitches, presentations, seminars, articles, white papers, podcasts, and other media formats.

Tom joined Cromwell in 2021 from Mayfair Capital/Swiss Life, where he spent four years and was latterly Director of Strategy and Innovation responsible for UK and European research. Prior to this, he spent two years as an Associate Director in JLL’s UK Corporate Research team. He also has experience working in Australia in a research role and in property economics with Colliers International and Hill PDA respectively.

Tom holds an MA in Property Development from the University of Technology (UTS) Sydney, an MA in Town and Country Planning from the University of Sheffield, and a BA in Human Geography from Nottingham Trent University.

Head of Northern Europe

Skills and Experience

Pontus Flemme Gärdsell is responsible for growing the company’s business and managing the local teams throughout the Benelux, CEE, Nordics and UK  region.

Pontus joined Cromwell in 2011 as Group Accountant for Sweden and became Head of Finance for Sweden just over two years later. He was then appointed Head of Finance for the entire Nordics region in early 2017 and became the Head of Nordics in the beginning of 2020. He has held the role of Head of Northern Europe since December 2023. Prior to joining Cromwell, he worked at Deloitte for five years.

Pontus holds a Master of Business and Economics from Lund University.