Germany’s largest public pension group, Bayerische Versorgungskammer (BVK), has appointed Andreas Steimel to serve as the interim head of its real estate investment division.

Steimel has over 25 years of experience in the real estate sector, with 16 of those years spent at PIMCO Prime Real Estate (formerly Allianz Real Estate).

In his most recent role as chief operating officer, Steimel was responsible for change management, transformation, information technology, legal and compliance, and human resources. While in this role, he also served as business continuity manager and gained experience leading the global crisis management team.

In his career, Steimel has also been responsible for designing closed-end national and international real estate funds and investment structures in the US, as well as working at Ernst & Young and Arthur Andersen, where he focused on real estate.

The appointment of Steimel follows an extensive selection process and represents a milestone in the implementation of the package of measures announced at the beginning of December in response to the challenges posed by individual US real estate investments.

The measures have seen the investments made between 2018 and 2020 being systematically reviewed.

BVK has continued to rule out any impact on pension commitments to members, insured persons and beneficiaries and is providing up-to-date information on the review regularly on its website.

Commenting on the appointment, BVK CEO, Axel Uttenreuther, said that with this appointment, BVK are “not only gaining a proven expert, but also a personality who has impressively demonstrated his competence, particularly in challenging and complex situations”.

“Steimel has excellent knowledge of the international real estate environment, particularly in the US. I am convinced that he will provide sound support and targeted reinforcement to his colleagues in the real estate investment division, while also providing valuable new impetus,” Uttenreuther added.

Steimel expressed his “gratitude for the trust placed” in him and also that he “looks forward to working with the team to tackle the challenges ahead with determination”.

“As a manager, strategic thinking, empathy and clear decisions are always at the heart of my actions. Especially in times of change, I want to contribute my change management and transformation expertise and thus make a targeted contribution to the success of the Bavarian Pension Fund,” Steimel said.

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