Hong Kong Chapter Board Members

Practice focus

Jeremy is a senior lawyer in the Hong Kong office with over 10 years of experience advising REITs on their formation, acquisitions, disposals, equity/debt capital raising exercises and liability management exercises. He has worked on almost all of Hong Kong's largest REIT transactions, and has been recognised by Legal 500 as a "Next Generation Partner" for investment funds, as well as recommended in the area of REITs.

Professional affiliations

• Jeremy is a member of The Law Institute of Victoria.

Education and admission
Jeremy graduated from the University of Melbourne with an LL.B. (Hons)
and a B.Com. He is admitted as a solicitor in Australia.

Sarah Cooper is Managing Director & Global Head of Real Estate Equity Sales at BofA Securities, based in Hong Kong. She is a member of the BofA Hong Kong Leadership team, and Chairman of the Hong Kong Philanthropy committee.

Sarah works closely with both the research & banking side of BofA. She has worked on transactions from markets as diverse as Russia, China, India & Indonesia, as well as being active in traditional developed markets (notably Australia, UK, Germany, Singapore, USA, HK & Japan). Sarah was a top ranked property analyst in Australia, before moving to London and
then Hong Kong where she has lived for 10 years.

Sarah is ranked the #1 property specialist sales person in II & is a trusted advisor of both global & local real estate investors. Sarah is a Global Trustee for the Urban Land institute, and on the Board of the HK chapter of the Asia Pacific Real Estate Association. She is the Chairman of BofA’s HK Philanthropy committee, & was previously Co-Chair of the Asian GBAM Women’s Leadership Council. She completed the Taupo Ironman in 2001, coaches mini rugby & Auskicks, & is passionate about family, travel, & cutting the volume of emails at BofA. She has been at the firm for 20 years.

Ms. Chiu is the Chief Executive Officer of ARA Asset Management (Fortune) Limited, as manager of Fortune REIT, since February 2015. She is responsible for the overall performance and direction of Fortune REIT.

Ms. Chiu holds a Master of Science degree in Real Estate Economics and Finance, a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting and Finance, a Postgraduate Certificate in Laws and a Postgraduate Diploma in Law. She is also a solicitor of the High Court of the HKSAR, a CFA Charterholder, a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and a member of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors.

Edmund Ho has had 30 years of investment and corporate banking experience before retiring from Standard Chartered Bank as Head of Real Estate, Greater China. He previously worked in several globally investment banks including Citibank, JP Morgan and Jardine Fleming. Edmund is currently serving as a Director of the Asia Pacific Real Assets Association (APREA) Hong Kong Chapter Board, a professional organisation that strives to be the leading advocate for the real assets sector in Asia Pacific.  Edmund has an Engineering Physics Bachelor Degree from Queen’s University in Canada and an MBA degree from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Mr. Southergill is a Partner and Head of Real Estate Investments at Ares SSG, part of Ares Management Corporation.

Prior to joining Ares in 2022, Mr. Southergill was a Managing Director on the Real Estate team at KKR, based in Hong Kong. He set up the Asia real estate equity and credit investing businesses, led Asia real estate acquisitions and was responsible for advancing KKR’s Asia real estate investment strategy. He sat on KKR's Asia Real Estate Investment Committee, KKR’s Asia Real Estate Portfolio Management Committee and KKR’s India Real Estate Non-Bank Finance Company Investment Committee.

Prior to joining KKR, Mr. Southergill was Managing Director and Head of Asia Real Estate Investing in J.P. Morgan's Global Special Opportunities Group, where he led its proprietary, special situations-style, real estate investing business in Asia.

Prior to that, Mr. Southergill was Deputy Head of Asia Real Estate Investment Banking at Morgan Stanley. During his time at Morgan Stanley, he was based in New York, London and Hong Kong, and had responsibility for both real estate investing projects and corporate finance advisory mandates in the United States, Europe and Asia.

Mr. Southergill serves on the Asia Pacific Real Estate Association (APREA) Hong Kong Chapter Board, is Co-Chair of the Urban Land Institute’s Asia Pacific Capital Markets Council and is Co-Chair of the Real Estate Committee for the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong.

Mr. Southergill holds a Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, in Economics and Political Science from Amherst College.

Ms Chan oversees asset investment of Link, covering Asia. She is one of the responsible officers of LAML (manager of Link) for the purposes of the SFO. Ms CHAN has over 20 years of experience in the real estate and fund management industry. Prior to joining LAML, Ms Chan held management positions in Harvest Capital Partners, ARA Asset Management (Prosperity) and Hutchison Whampoa Properties. Ms Chan has extensive experience in direct asset investment, debt and equity investment and financing, asset management, REIT and PERE funds set up and management. Ms Chan holds a BSc (Surveying) degree from HKU and a MSC (Global Finance) degree jointly conferred by the NYU Stern School of Business and HKUST School of Business and Management. She is a qualified General Practice Surveyor and a member of HKIS and RICS. She is also a HK Advisory Board member to RICS.

Ms Christina Hau is the Chief Executive Officer of Champion Real Estate Investment Trust, overseeing its  strategic development, asset management, asset enhancement and investment opportunities. Ms Hau is a Registered Architect in Hong Kong with over 20 years of experience in the real estate industry, covering design, planning, project management and asset management of renowned world-class commercial complexes. Prior to joining the REIT Manager, Ms Hau worked at Hong Kong’s leading real estate listed companies overseeing key investment properties in Mainland China.  Ms Hau graduated from The Chinese University of Hong Kong with degrees in Master of Architecture and Bachelor of Social Sciences (Hons). She is a member of Hong Kong Institute of Architects and Vice- Chairman of Commercial Properties Research Association under China Real Estate Chamber of Commerce.