MILAN, ITALY—Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers LLC has appointed Valeria Falcone as country head of Italy.

Falcone joins from The Carlyle Group where she was a managing director and Real Estate Country head for Italy.  Her appointment coincides with the opening of Cornerstone's Italian office in Milan, and marks the next stage of expansion of its European business, following the acquisition of PAMERA Asset Management GmbH in Germany last year.  Cornerstone now has operations across the United States, a European business comprising offices in the United Kingdom, Nordics, Germany, Netherlands and Italy, as well as an Asian platform with offices in Hong Kong and Japan.

Reporting to Julian Gabriel, Cornerstone's Head of Investment Europe, Falcone will be responsible for sourcing both new real estate investment opportunities in Italy, as well as capital from Italian institutions wishing to invest in Cornerstone's debt and equity products in the US and Europe.

“Valeria is a fantastic addition to the European real estate team and provides us with an important foothold in one of our key target markets in Europe,” said Gabriel. “She is a well-respected real estate investment professional and brings with her a wealth of experience which is highly complementary to our existing platform.” 

Falcone joined The Carlyle Group in 2004 as an asset manager and over her 11 years with the Group was promoted through various positions before being appointed as Country Head of Italy in 2011.  Her responsibilities included the acquisition of commercial and residential properties in Italy, as well as the ongoing management of the Group's Italian portfolio. Prior to joining The Carlyle Group Falcone spent three years at Pirelli & C. Real Estate (now Prelios) which she joined from Citibank.

“We are committed to the continued expansion of our European platform and are currently looking to make similar inroads in France and Spain, which will provide us with coverage across all the key western European markets,” Charles Weeks, CEO Cornerstone Europe said.

Commenting on her appointment, Falcone, added:  “I have followed Cornerstone's expansion with interest for a number of years and am very much looking forward to being part of such a dynamic and ambitious team which has a strong balance sheet behind it and a good reputation for successful four quadrant investment into real estate through direct, indirect, equity and debt transactions.”

Cornerstone is one of the largest global real estate investment managers with over $47 billion (€41 billion) of assets under management.