Giant sovereign fund hires ex-JP Morgan man as global head of real estate.

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, has appointed JP Morgan’s Bill Schwab as its global head of real estate.

Schwab, 56, joins the fund from JP Morgan, where he was a managing director in the European real estate finance division.

Schwab will oversee the fund’s global property investment strategy.

His recruitment is a key development for the fund, which has been building its property team with high-profile appointments and is estimated to have $875bn (£591bn) of assets under management.

ADIA wants to form a dedicated property strategy to determine how and where to invest most profitably during the downturn.

Schwab, who will be based with the existing real estate team in Abu Dhabi, will now lead ADIA’s global property investment strategy.

Before JP Morgan, he worked at Deutsche Bank as a director in the real estate, capital structure and underwriting department, and has also worked at Goldman Sachs.

Majed Al Romaithi, executive director for real estate at ADIA, said: ‘Bill is a highly regarded professional with broad knowledge and experience. He will play an important role in guiding ADIA’s investment strategy.’