Stride Property promotes Philip Littlewood to CEO

Stride Property promotes Philip Littlewood to CEO after six-month spell in joint acting role

By Paul McBeth

June 26 (BusinessDesk) - Stride Property Group, which last month beat annual profit forecasts, has promoted Philip Littlewood to chief executive after the former GM investment management spent six months in a joint acting role with chief financial officer Jennifer Whooley.

Littlewood's appointment takes effect immediately, officially replacing Peter Alexander, who announced his exit in December. Alexander oversaw the rebranding of Stride from DNZ Property Fund and overhauled the structure by splitting out its Investore Property subsidiary into a separately listed entity managed by Stride and separating its real estate investment management in a stapled structure to expand its management arm while preserving its favourable tax status.

"Philip was a stand-out candidate and was selected with the unanimous support of the board, due to his proven capabilities as an experienced people leader, strategist and high performing property fund manager with New Zealand market knowledge," Stride chairman Tim Storey said in a statement. Littlewood was "instrumental" in coming up with the real estate investor's new strategy and his co-leadership with Whooley has "focused on achieving operational efficiencies to respond to the recent growth in the business".

Separately, Stride also announced the appointment of Philip Ling to the board, effective immediately. Ling was recently the Asia Pacific chief executive for Chicago-based real estate investor LaSalle Investment Management and has previously held executive roles at Lend Lease, BT Funds Management, and Kiwi Property Trust.

Stride shares were unchanged at $1.74 and have slipped 1.7 percent so far this year.

(BusinessDesk)

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