ASX-listed Vicinity Centres has appointed Peter Huddle as CEO and Managing Director, having been acting CEO since late last year.
Huddle joined Vicinity as Chief Operating Officer in March 2019, bringing his strategic vision and global experience in creating market leading, retail-led destinations.
Huddle has been instrumental in building organisational capability and a cohesive, integrated and customer-focused Operations team, comprising Property Management, Leasing, Operations, Development, and Marketing.
Prior to joining Vicinity, Huddle held a variety of leadership roles at Westfield in Australia, Brazil, and the US.
During his time at Westfield, he had management responsibility for some of the world’s preeminent retail and mixed-use development projects including Westfield World Trade Centre in New York and Century City in Los Angeles.
Following the acquisition of Westfield by Unibail-Rodamco in June 2018, which formed the largest global retail REIT, Mr Huddle was appointed COO of the US business.
In this role, Mr Huddle led all real estate activities including Development, Design, Construction, Management, Leasing, and Asset Management.
He was also a member of the URW Global Management Board.
“Peter’s appointment reflects his leadership skills, deep commercial experience, and exemplary track record at Vicinity, and together with the Board, I am delighted the new CEO comes from within the Company,” said Vicinity Chairman Trevor Gerber.
“In his role as CEO, I am confident that Peter will bring new ideas and fresh thinking to Vicinity, that will further build on existing growth initiatives and at the same time, maintain the Company’s disciplined approach to deployment of capital and preservation of our strong balance sheet and credit ratings.”
Huddle said he was honoured to be appointed CEO of Vicinity, given the critical role the company played in Australia’s evolving retail sector and the calibre of the team he was now leading.
“I believe Vicinity has the right strategy in place to deliver long-term growth and, under my stewardship, we will have an even greater emphasis on driving a performance culture that is focused on property excellence, customer centricity, and disciplined capital management,” he said.
“I am looking forward to helping shape Vicinity’s future as a high performing, property-led sector leader and ultimately, delivering shared value for our customers, retailers, strategic partners, investors and importantly, the Vicinity team.”
Vicinity has $24 billion in retail assets under management across 60 shopping centres, making it the second largest listed manager of Australian retail property.
