Expat Aussie investment banker tipped as next Stockland boss

New York-based Australian investment banker Mark Steinert has being tipped as the person to replace Matthew Quinn as managing director and CEO of developer Stockland.

Steinert, global head of product development at UBS Global Asset Management, held talks with Stockland chairman Graham Bradley last week, according to a report in the The Australian.

His first role at UBS was as global head real estate research, a position he held for eight years.

A spokesperson for Stockland told Property Observer it had not yet made a decision about who would replace Quinn and that the search for a replacement is ongoing.

Quinn announced his decision to retire after 12 years in the role in July and is due to step down in February.

Steinert is a new name in the mix of potential candidates.

Previous names touted as possible replacements for Quinn include Australand managing director Bob Johnston, Westfield chief financial officer Peter Allen, Rod Leaver, CEO of Lend Lease Asia, former St George Bank CEO Paul Fegan, David Southon, co-founder and joint managing director of Charter Hall, veteran Macquarie banker Matthew Banks and the only internal candidate, John Schroder, current chief executive of commercial property at Stockland.

Bradley has said recently that Stockland would consider a candidate from the financial services sector as was the case with fellow listed property group GPT, which recently appointed Michael Cameron, former group chief financial officer of the Commonwealth Bank, as its managing director and CEO.

As part of his address to the Stockland AGM on October 17 Bradley said the search for a new managing director was “progressing well”.

“Following Matthew’s decision, we appointed a board sub-committee to progress the internal and external search process, and appointed a leading international executive search firm to review both local and offshore candidates.

Bradley said a suitable candidate would be an “outstanding individual capable of providing strategic leadership in an increasingly complex investment, market and regulatory environment, coupled with all the skills you would expect to find in terms of operational management, people management, business judgement and stakeholder relations appropriate to a top 50 listed company”.

No deadline has been set for making the appointment with Bradley saying at the AGM an announcement was expected “in due course”.

An announcement is expected before the end of the year.