Avignon Capital appoints Kok to lead sustainability team
Real estate management consultant Avignon Capital has appointed Nils Kok as senior impact adviser.
Kok will be responsible for leading the sustainability team, be part of Avignon’s investment committee and work closely with senior management to further integrate ESG considerations into investment processes as well as develop new products and solutions.
Kok is a professor in real estate finance at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. Previously, he was the founder and chief executive of GRESB, a global ESG rating company for real estate and infrastructure investments. Kok also served as chief economist and non-executive board member at GeoPhy, a provider of automated valuations for the real estate sector.
Avignon Capital has built an ESG task force which will roll out a ‘brown 2 green’ strategy across the portfolio, concentrating on transforming undermanaged, underinvested and outdated buildings into ones with exemplary ESG credentials. The roll-out will begin in Germany before moving into other areas of operation including the Netherlands, the UK, Germany, Spain and Portugal.
“With a strong track record in asset and investment management, Avignon is well positioned to take on the challenge of converting the existing commercial real estate stock in Europe from inefficient and potentially stranded into net-zero carbon, sustainable and healthy assets,” said Kok.
