ARA Venn is a specialist investment manager in European residential investment strategies, serving the investment needs of a diversified group of government entities, leading global institutions and private investors

Lord Swire was previously an Independent Non Executive Director of ESR until June 2022.  Since then he has been an Independent Advisor to ARA UK Asset management Limited.  Previously a Member of Parliament and Government Minister he now sits in the House of Lords.

Moses K. Song is CEO of ARA Asset Management Limited (“ARA”). He is responsible for leading ARA’s diversified real assets platform covering APAC, Europe and the US.  Mr Song oversees strategy, business and product development, capital raising and all investment management activities involving ARA.

Prior to joining ARA in 2009, Mr Song held senior positions with leading investment management firms and global investment banks in Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong and Singapore.  Mr Song holds a Juris Doctor from Vanderbilt University School of Law and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from Centre College.

Josh Daitch joined ESR in 2018 and serves as a Senior Managing Director and Group Head of Fund Management & Capital. He has overall global responsibility for ESR’s Fund Management segment and private investment capital partners.  He brings nearly three decades of global real estate investment experience to the Group, having held leadership roles across the private equity and real estate spectrum in various financial institutions, including Mesirow Financial and Goldman Sachs.  Mr Daitch holds an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and a BA with high distinction from the University of Michigan.

Ash is an Associate in the Residential Mortgage Lending team, working on asset management and securitisation strategies across the Netherlands, UK and Spain. Prior to joining the team in 2022, Ash was at Barclays Investment Bank for four years, on the European securitised products trading desk, where she was making markets in a range of sectors including Residential and Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities. Ash holds a First Class Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from the University of Warwick.

Kobe works within the operations team as a Treasury Vice President.  Prior to joining ARA Venn in 2018, he was at Goldman Sachs on their graduate program. During his two years there he worked within the Treasury and Prime Brokerage businesses. He has a first class honours degree in Business & Management from the University of Kent.

Jon Taylor provides Residential Lending Team underwriting advisory services to ARA Venn. He runs Northdale Asset Management, a real estate asset management company, and has been involved in the real estate industry for 20 years. His experience covers a broad range of originating, underwriting and asset managing debt and equity investments across the UK and Europe, and he previously worked at Citigroup and Merrill Lynch Real Estate Finance groups. Jon is a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

Simon works within the Operations team as a Financial Accountant. He qualified with PricewaterhouseCoopers Dublin as an ACA, where he worked within their asset and wealth management department. He has a Master’s degree in Accounting from the National University of Ireland Galway.

Pablo is a senior member of the Residential Lending Team. Prior to joining ARA Venn in 2019, Pablo was a Director within BNP Paribas’ Real Estate Finance team, leading the origination and execution of CRE transactions in Spain and Portugal. With over 11 years’ experience, Pablo has completed over €1.6bn of commercial real estate financings across Europe covering a cross section of senior and whole loan lending strategies. As Head of ARA Venn Spain, he is responsible for all the firm’s in-country activities including sourcing, structuring and managing real estate debt investments in the Iberian market. Pablo holds a postgraduate degree from the London School of Economics (LSE) and an undergraduate degree from Universidad Pontificia Comillas (ICADE).

James works within the Operations team, as Head of Operations and Finance. He has a number of years’ experience within the financial service industry across alternative asset investment structures. He has worked predominately in credit covering a wide range of products and sectors. He qualified as a chartered accountant in Grant Thornton’s audit team before joining Close Brothers in 2013. Prior to joining ARA Venn he worked at Pollen Street Capital as Head of Finance – Credit.  James holds a BSc in Geography and an MA in Contemporary History, both from the University of Bristol.

Angus is an Associate within the technology team, where he develops and maintains the Vera system that underpins the firm’s investment activities, together with the associated infrastructure supporting the business. Angus graduated from the University of Cambridge with a master’s degree, having studied materials science and physics.

Hamzah is an Analyst in the Residential Lending Team providing support in the modelling, underwriting, structuring and management of deals across our lending sectors. Hamzah has an MPhil in Real Estate Finance from the University of Cambridge and a Master in Architecture from Yale University.

Charles joined the firm in 2022 as Head of Capital Markets for the Residential Mortgage business. He has a number of years’ experience within the financial service industry with a strong credit focus. Prior to joining ARA Venn, Charles was Senior Vice President at Kensington Mortgages, the largest UK specialist mortgage lender, where he structured and placed flow agreements, mortgage portfolio sales and Residential Mortgage Backed Securities. He has also spent a number of years trading structured credit and rate derivative products at Société Générale and HSBC. Charles holds an MSc in quantitative finance from ESSEC Business School and an engineering MSc in optics from Institut d’Optique Graduate School.

Alex is a Vice President in the Residential Lending Team acting as execution lead in the origination, structuring and management of deals across our lending sectors.  Alex joined ARA Venn in 2022 and has over 7 years of finance experience.  Alex started his career at BNP Paribas in their Global Banking team where he worked in corporate banking lending and relationship management across numerous sectors including real estate.  He holds a first class Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Rocco is a Vice President in the Residential Lending Team and leads the Asset Management function. Rocco joined ARA Venn in 2022 and has many years of real estate finance experience. Prior to joining ARA Venn, Rocco was a Senior Portfolio Manager at Puma Property Finance. He holds a Master’s of Finance from Regent’s University London and a Bachelor of Economics from University of Bologna.

Matthew joined ARA Venn as an Analyst in the Residential Lending Team providing support in the modelling, underwriting, structuring and management of deals across our lending sectors. Prior to joining ARA Venn in March 2023, Matthew worked at OakNorth Bank in the Fund Finance and Real Estate Lending teams. Matthew has a first class undergraduate degree in Business Economics from the University of Liverpool.

Vicky is a Vice President in the Residential Lending Team, acting as execution lead in the origination, structuring and management of deals across our lending sectors. Prior to joining Venn in 2019, Vicky was on the Financial modelling team at the UK property company, Telereal Trillium for 2 years, providing support to the asset management and investment teams. Vicky has a Master’s in Chemistry from the University of Chicago and a First Class undergraduate degree in Chemistry from the University of Oxford.

Priya is in-house legal counsel for ARA Venn, primarily supporting the execution and structuring teams and also providing legal support across the business. Prior to joining ARA Venn in March 2021, Priya spent three and a half years as an associate in Taylor Wessing LLP’s Banking & Finance team, where she advised on a broad range of debt finance transactions, with a particular focus on real estate investment and development finance. Priya also has experience in project finance, acquisition finance and general corporate finance transactions.

Chris leads the development of ARA Venn’s proprietary trade booking and valuation system (Vera), supporting its integration with the firm’s risk analytics framework and wider business activities. He additionally has technical oversight of the organisation’s resilient computerised infrastructure. Prior to joining ARA Venn, Chris was a Research Assistant at the University of Oxford, where he also obtained a master’s degree and doctorate in computer science.

James is in-house legal counsel for ARA Venn, primarily supporting the execution and structuring teams. Prior to joining ARA Venn in 2016, James was with Eversheds for 6 years where he was an Associate in the Banking and Finance team, undertaking secondments to ARA Venn and to Barclays during that time. James has experience of a wide range of finance transactions and a particular focus on real estate finance. James holds degrees in law, and in politics and international relations.

Georgios works within the Residential Lending Team primarily supporting  with the Asset Management responsibilities under the Affordable Homes Guarantee and Private Rented Sector Schemes. Prior to his current role Georgios was with the Operations and Finance team, supporting across all businesses with a main focus on the Private Funds. He graduated from Essex Business School with a BSc in Accounting & Finance and also holds a Master’s from King’s College London in Accounting & Financial Management with a Distinction. He also qualified as an ACCA with ARA Venn in 2022.

Luke is Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer at ARA Venn, and has over 25 years of experience, with a particular focus on credit products. Before joining ARA Venn in 2015, Luke was Head of Operations at CQS, a $14bn multi-asset hedge fund. Prior to that, he managed Product Control at Cairn Capital, a credit asset manager, and was an Executive Director at Goldman Sachs leading the structured credit middle office. Luke has a degree in Mathematics from the University of East Anglia.

Richard is a partner in the Residential Lending Team and was part of the founding team at ARA Venn. Formerly in the asset backed financing groups at JP Morgan and Fitch Ratings, he has over 25 years’ experience in the asset finance and credit markets having worked across a spectrum of asset classes including commercial and residential real estate financings. He has a proven track record in building and managing innovative financing platforms, as well as the development of risk management tools. Richard has a Master’s in finance and a degree in law.

David joined ARA Venn in 2010 having worked for ten years in investment banking as a quantitative analyst. His role at ARA Venn is to design and implement cutting-edge financial models and industry-standard risk reporting tools. These are bundled together into the firm’s Vera package, which is used internally and licensed to third party asset managers. He holds both an undergraduate degree and an advanced diploma in applied mathematics from Cambridge University.

Managing Partner and co-founder of ARA Venn. Gary also heads the firm’s mortgage finance business where the firm has developed investment and funding strategies in the UK, the Netherlands and Spain.  With over 22 years of experience in private credit markets, he was formerly co-head of alternative assets and structured credit solutions for Europe at Nomura, and a senior structurer in the European bank solutions team at Goldman Sachs. He started his career as a tax and structured finance lawyer at Linklaters, and has a degree in law from Oxford University.

Kirsty is our Receptionist / Junior Team Assistant at ARA Venn and is responsible for looking after front of house and assisting with administrative tasks. Prior to joining ARA Venn in March 2023, Kirsty worked in front of house roles at Shore Capital, EPR Architects and Quantiq. Kirsty also has experience in HR Administration having previously worked as a HR Administrator for Bulletproof Design Limited.

Sarah is our Senior Executive Assistant at ARA Venn. She has extensive experience supporting partners, teams and leaders in management at law firms in London, including at Macfarlanes and Fasken Martineau. Prior to that, Sarah managed land titles for public listed mining and exploration companies in Australia.

Oriane is a senior member of the team and leads the origination, negotiation and execution of our social housing investments, and is Deputy Portfolio Manager for the £3 billion Affordable Homes Guarantee Scheme 2020. Oriane has over 15 years of corporate lending experience and was a Director in the social housing team at M&G plc prior to joining ARA Venn in 2020. She holds a Master in Management from EDHEC Business School and a MSc in Finance from the University of Strathclyde Business School. Oriane is a CFA Charterholder.

Federico joined the firm in August 2022 as an analyst in the Residential Mortgage Lending team.  Prior to joining ARA Venn, Federico was an associate analyst at Moody’s where he analysed European ABS and RMBS transactions. Federico holds a Bachelor’s of Finance from Lancaster University.

Annie works within the Operations team as an Operations and Finance Analyst. Annie holds a BSc in Finance and Accounting from Brunel University London, graduating with a first class honours.

Laura works within the Operations team as Financial Controller. Laura qualified as a chartered accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers before working at Funding Circle, where she was responsible for the day-to-day operations and reporting of the Funding Circle-sponsored public and private funds. Prior to joining ARA Venn, she worked as a Director at an accountancy practice in Guernsey. Laura holds a BA(Hons) in History from Durham University.

Charlotte works within the Operations team as a Financial Accountant. She qualified with EY Jersey as a Chartered Accountant, where she worked within both the Banking & Capital Markets and Wealth & Asset Management teams. Charlotte holds a BSc in Biological Sciences from the University of Exeter.

Susan has over 25 years of leadership in senior finance roles and is an experienced non-executive director. She brings extensive relevant experience to the Board of Saltaire, having spent 10 years as CFO of Peabody Trust, one of the oldest and largest affordable housing providers, where she played a key role delivering significant business growth and change, mergers and acquisitions, restructuring and debt raising for their development pipeline.

She had previously spent a further eight years in the affordable housing market with Hastoe Housing, as Finance Director, and at Richmond Housing Partnership. Prior to that, she worked in banking and accountancy. Her other current non-executive roles include LandAid and VSO International.

Mr Moses K. Song is Group CEO of ARA Asset Management Limited. Mr Song concurrently serves as Group CIO, where he is responsible for leading all principal investing activities, establishing new investment platforms, group strategy and overseeing ARA’s Country Desks. In addition, Mr Song leads the Group Business Development Committee, which drives and coordinates all new business and product initiatives, and serves on the ARA Group Investment Review Committee. He is also a Non-Executive Director of the Managers of ARA US Hospitality Trust.

Mark Prisk is an experienced company director and former Housing Minister of State, with a track record of leadership and delivery in both the public and private sectors. He is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, with considerable experience in the UK’s residential and commercial real estate markets. Amongst several non-executive roles, he is Strategic Advisor to the Board of Benoy Ltd, a global practice of architects, master planners and designers.

As Housing Minister, he helped establish the UK’s Build to Rent market and introduced a revolving Local Infrastructure Fund to deliver 78,000 new homes. He was responsible for establishing the UK Government’s first Guarantee Schemes for both the Private Rented sector and Affordable Housing sector, each worth £3bn.

Mark served as a Member of Parliament between 2001-2019 and was a senior member of the House of Commons Housing & Local Government Select Committee between 2014-2019. He was appointed as the Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy to the Nordic nations in 2014, serving until 2019.

Mark is a qualified senior executive coach and works with business and public sector leaders.

Sarah Wall has over 20 years’ experience as a senior funder to the social housing, real estate and infrastructure industries. She has served as a Non-Executive on the Social Housing Regulator and is currently Non-Executive Director at Sixty Bricks Ltd., a property development company owned by Waltham Forest Council. In her executive career, Sarah was most recently a senior portfolio manager at Aviva, responsible for managing over £1bn of pension and insurance assets. She previously ran the £2bn illiquid credit portfolio at the Pension Protection Fund and was Director of Credit Research and Debt Restructuring at M&G. Sarah also has a strong background in risk management, having been Head of Investment Risk at Pension Insurance Corporation, where she set up the function and co-authored the company’s first ORSA. She rated social housing bonds at Fitch Ratings and CMBS at DBRS. Sarah has mentored women in the investment industry and was a Timewise Power Part Timer. She has a Masters’ degree from St. John’s College, Oxford and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment.

Catherine is Chief of Staff at ARA Venn, where she is responsible for various internal corporate functions including communications, human resources, projects and initiatives. She is a qualified lawyer with ten years’ legal experience, gained both in private practice as a litigator and as an inhouse solicitor at Smith & Williamson, where she dealt with a broad range of issues affecting all areas of the business. Catherine holds an honours degree in law from Durham University.

Katie is a consultant to ARA Venn, with responsibility for coordinating the firm’s environmental, social and governance initiatives. She is a qualified lawyer having started her career as a commercial lawyer at Simmons & Simmons advising on a broad range of commercial contracts and projects. Katie holds an honours degree in law from Durham University.

Justin works within the Operations team, as a Project Manager. He has over 10 years of experience working across alternative asset investment structures in both financial and operational roles. He qualified as an ACA with Deloitte LLP and subsequently worked for Europa Capital. Justin has a degree in Economics from the University of Leeds.

Mr Mark Ebbinghaus is Chief Executive Officer of ARA Europe, responsible for identifying and executing business and investment opportunities in Europe. He covers both private and public markets, funds management initiatives, and drives acquisitive and organic growth in the platform. Mr Ebbinghaus is concurrently Chairman of both ARA Dunedin, ARA’s joint venture (JV) with Dunedin Property Asset Management to invest in and manage real estate assets in the United Kingdom, and ARA Venn, ARA’s JV with Venn Partners to invest in and manage funds and other ownership vehicles covering real estate credit strategies in Europe. He is also responsible for the Group’s real estate credit initiatives and a member of the ARA Group Business Development Committee which drives and coordinates all new business initiatives.

Peter Impey is a non-executive director of PRS Operations Limited, a 100% subsidiary of Venn Partners and the operator of the £3.5 billion UK government guaranteed funding scheme for PRS loans. Peter’s career encompasses over 40 years in commercial banking and social finance, with a particular focus on risk management, risk assessment and credit approval. He has been responsible for the development and operation of risk management and analysis techniques across a wide range of commercial and social sectors. Since 1995, he has focused on the development and implementation financial structures for the delivery of social programmes. More recently, he provided commercial advice and support for the design and implementation of the Housing Guarantees Schemes to, firstly, HM Treasury and, thereafter, to the Department for Communities and Local Government. He serves on the Board of Affordable Housing Finance PLC as a DCLG nominee and in August 2015 he was also appointed as an independent director of PRS Operations Ltd, the delivery vehicle for the Private Rented Sector Guarantees Scheme.

Roger Bright was appointed Chairman of PRS Operations Ltd in August 2015. Roger’s career spans some 40 years at the public/private sector interface, much of it in the real estate and housing sectors. Following 17 years in Whitehall at the Department of the Environment, he became Deputy Chief Executive at the Housing Corporation where he led the introduction of risk-based regulation for the housing association sector as it became increasingly reliant on private finance. After a stint in financial services regulation, he became Chief Executive of The Crown Estate in 2001, where he led the modernisation and commercialisation of the business until retiring in 2011. He now holds a number of non-executive roles, including board member at London First, where he chaired a task force which published “Home Truths – 12 steps to solving London’s Housing Crisis” in 2014. He chairs the Advisory Board at Curtin&Co, a public affairs company specialising in planning and development; is deputy chairman of the council at City University London, a council member of the Royal Veterinary College and a board member of The Royal Parks.