Scott Fischer has been named senior vice president, finance, at KingSett Capital. (Image courtesy KingSett)

Cominar REIT (CUF-UN-T) has announced further changes to its board of trustees, including the pending resignation of chairman Alban D’Amours, who will not stand for re-election in 2019.

The trust has also entered into a “board refreshment agreement” with shareholders FrontFour Capital Group LLC, Westdale Construction Co. Limited and K2 & Associates Investment Management Inc.

Zachary Ryan George, co-founder and portfolio manager at FrontFour, will be appointed trustee as of Jan. 2 following the previously announced resignation of Heather Kirk. She is leaving the board to become executive vice-president and chief financial officer at Cominar.

George will sit on Cominar’s nominating and governance and investment committees.

Mitchell Cohen, chief operating officer of Westdale (and also CEO of Urbanfund), will be nominated by Cominar to fill the vacancy created by the departure of D’Amours.

Finally, one additional person will be designated by Cominar and the unitholders to join the slate of nominees up for election at Cominar’s 2019 annual meeting.

“I wish to thank Mr. D’Amours for his significant leadership and his years of service on the board of Cominar,” Sylvain Cossette, Cominar’s president and CEO, said in a release. “Mr. D’Amours’ experience and wisdom have been invaluable to us as we have been transforming Cominar.

“The completion of this board refreshment process enables Cominar to continue to execute on its strategic plan, and to evolve in Cominar 2.0.”

New chairman, CEO at Delma Group

The Delma Group Inc. (DLMA-CN) announced CEO and chairman of the board Hasan Al-Shawa has resigned for personal and family reasons.  He will remain as an independent director.

Hubert Marleau is the new chairman of the board and Henri Petit becomes president and CEO of Delma. Marleau is well-known for his involvement on boards of directors of numerous public companies, as well as in the world of international finance.

Petit, a lawyer by profession, has more than 20 years of experience in real estate development and management, and was already acting as president and CEO of the main division of the company, Delma Real Estate Corporation.

Al-Shawa led Delma through its transition to a publicly traded company which was completed in March 2018. Formerly known as Aydon Income Properties Inc., the company has been involved in the industry for more than 27 years.

The Montreal-based company develops, owns and manages a portfolio of properties in Canada, the U.S. and Europe.

Eadie joins new GLP fund managment board

Graeme Eadie, the former senior managing director and global head of real assets at the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), has become a member of the new GLP fund management board. GLP, a global logistics provider, also announced former GLP chair Seek Ngee Huat will chair the board, and former Yale University president Richard Levin will be the third member.

“I am pleased to announce the formation of our fund management board,” said Ming Mei, co-founder and CEO of GLP, in a release. “The global insights and industry visibility of our directors will provide a valuable business perspective as we advance GLP’s global growth strategy in real estate, private equity and infrastructure to continue creating exceptional value for our investors.”

Huat has been an industry executive for more than 40 years, most recently serving as chairman of GLP until January 2018, when GLP was privatized in the largest private equity buyout in Asia. He now chairs the Institute of Real Estate and Urban Studies at the National University of Singapore.

Eadie remains a senior advisor to the CPPIB and previously held senior positions at Cadillac Fairview, including president and COO.

Wenner becomes CFO at Inovalis

Inovalis Real Estate Investment Trust (INO-UN-T) has appointed Tom Wenner as chief financial officer, and announced the CFO will now be based in Toronto rather than in France. Wenner is a chartered accountant who brings more than 18 years of experience with Canadian-listed REITs into the position.

Prior to joining Inovalis, Wenner acted as CFO of both One REIT and Allied Properties REIT.

He replaces Anne Smolen, who served in the role for about two years.

“We thank Anne for her contributions as CFO,” said Inovalis president Stéphane Amine in a release. “Having Mr. Wenner succeed Anne as CFO adds a new dynamic to the REIT and we look forward to his contributions as CFO. The rationale of the move of the CFO role from France to Canada is also to get the CFO closer to our investors and the Canadian capital markets.”

Inovalis owns interests in a portfolio of office properties in France and Germany.

KingSett appoints Fischer to finance role

KingSett Capital has named Scott Fischer its senior vice-president, finance. In his new role, Fischer is responsible for finance, budgeting, treasury and tax functions.

He has nearly 25 years of finance and accounting experience in progressively senior roles in both public and private companies including Great Gulf, MI Developments and Magna Entertainment Corp. Fischer holds a bachelor of commerce from McMaster University, and obtained his chartered accountant designation while working at KPMG.

Kovacs retires, Campbell to head PACICC

Alister Campbell will become president and CEO of the Property and Casualty Insurance Compensation Corporation (PACICC) effective Feb. 4. PACICC’s current president and CEO Paul Kovacs will retire after 15 years with the corporation.

“The opportunity to lead PACICC gives me the chance to play a central role in the engagement between our industry and our regulators, to ensure we continue to protect consumers in a continuously changing marketplace,” Campbell said in a release.

He is a 30-year veteran of the industry, having held CEO-level positions with several major insurers.

PACICC is the industry-funded resolution authority for Canada’s P&C insurance industry. Its mission is to protect policyholders in the event a member insurer becomes insolvent.