Vicinity Centres names new CFO

Retail landlord Vicinity Centres has appointed Spark Infrastructure executive Nicholas Schiffer as its new chief financial officer.

Schiffer, who will take on the role in September, has been Spark’s CFO since July 2017. He will report toVicinity CEO and managing director Grant Kelley when he joins the property firm’s executive committee.

Kelley said the company was delighted to have secured someone of Schiffer’s calibre, following an extensive domestic and international executive search, to join its team and lead the finance department.

As Vicinity’s CFO, Schiffer’s responsibilities will include leading the finance, investment management, treasury and capital transactions functions, in addition to Vicinity’s wholesale funds and strategic partnerships business.

Kelley said the company’s board and executive team look forward to welcoming Schiffer at a time when the business is rolling out a new strategy of creating a core portfolio of market-leading destinations, realising mixed-use opportunities across the group’s portfolio and expanding its wholesale funds platform.

“Nick’s broad finance, banking and industry advisory experience, together with his background in wholesale funds formation, will be a great complement to, and further strengthen, Vicinity’s executive team capability,” Kelley said.

Schiffer previously served as managing director at Credit Suisse for 17 years with responsibility for investment banking within the energy, transport and general infrastructure sectors across Australia and New Zealand.

Kelley said Schiffer’s knowledge and experience in infrastructure are widely relevant to the property industry and would bring some additional diversity of thought to the leadership team.

“With Nick’s appointment, I am confident that we are building up significant bench-strength in our executive team, which reflects the specialist and diverse capability we have across our organisation,” he said.

Kah Wong, currently Vicinity’s acting CFO, will return to the role of general manager of treasury, when Schiffer joins Vicinity in September.