Citco has appointed former a BlackRock and CBRE fund administration and real estate expert as its new head of real assets for North America.
Connie Tirondola will focus on managing client relationships and supporting fund accounting services for Citco’s growing North American real assets client base, and will report to Barbara Flusk, head of real assets, Citco Fund Services.
The sector has been lucrative for Citco in recent years with assets under administration (AUA) growing 40% between 2017 and 2020. The fund administrator said it serves services 11 out of 20 of the world’s top real estate managers.
Tirondola comes to Citco from CBRE where she was managing director in their fund administration business and was most recently responsible for business development. Prior to CBRE, she served as managing director and global head of real estate fund accounting at BlackRock.
Tirondola also held senior positions with Sentinel Real Estate and Prudential prior to BlackRock. She is a member of the Global Standards Steering Committee, a joint real estate industry group created by NCREIF/PREA, INREV and ANREV to further cooperation in global reporting standards.
“Throughout my career I have admired not only Citco, as a leading asset servicer, but also Barbara and her ability to build a strong real assets team and client base,” said Tirondola. “As managers increasingly recognize the benefits of outsourced solutions, I look forward to further strengthening North American client relationships and supporting managers’ evolving operational needs to create scalability by leveraging Citco’s use of industry leading technology and processes for real assets.”
Citco has been one of the many fund administrators benefiting from the rise of the private markets in recent years, a trend which has helped the firm reach $1 trillion in AuA. Subsequently, the fund administrator has invested in its servicing capabilities through new hires, technology rollouts and a centre of excellence focusing on private equity.
“At Citco we pride ourselves on providing globally integrated solutions, that leverage regional expertise, to address the unique needs of our real assets client base,” said Flusk. “We’re incredibly excited to bolster our team with such a highly respected industry leader such as Connie. I have worked with her for over a decade on various industry initiatives and our clients will greatly benefit from her many years of institutional finance experience.”