APUT appoints new chairman

Mandy Ramsden (pictured) has been appointed chairman of the Association of Property Unit Trust Management Companies (APUT). Ramsden replaces outgoing chairperson James Templeton, who has completed his term of chairmanship with the association.

Currently director of Real Estate Investments at Standard Bank, Ramsden brings several years of pertinent experience to her role as APUT chairman. She has worked at Standard Bank for ten years, eight of them in its corporate finance division with particular focus on structuring and implementing transactions in the listed and unlisted real estate sector.

In addition, Ramsden is closely involved in developing and growing the bank’s global real estate private equity and asset management businesses with an emphasis on emerging markets.

Ramsden has a long association with Fountainhead Property Trust (FPT), previously in an advisory capacity and now through Standard Bank Group’s ownership of Fountainhead Property Trust Management, the duly authorised manager of FPT.

As APUT chairman, her primary responsibilities will be to represent the property unit trust sector on matters affecting the real estate industry (such as the introduction of REIT legislation), to interact with industry regulators such as the Financial Services Board and the JSE and to co-ordinate the affairs of the APUT.