Deutsche Bank Asset Management has named Leslie Chua head of research and strategy for Asia-Pacific, excluding Japan and Korea, for its real estate investment management business RREEF Real Estate. 

Chua steps in from Pacific Star Holdings, where he was head of research and strategic planning. Prior to that, he held a similar role at Standard Chartered Bank-Istithmar Real Estate Fund Management and served as a key executive at Jones Lang LaSalle Real Estate Intelligence Service. 

At his new position, he joins the Asia-Pacific RREEF Real Estate Research and Strategy team, working alongside Koichuro Obu, the head of research and strategy for Japan and Korea. His appointment follows on the hires of Mark Roberts as global head of research in June and Simon Durkin as head of European research in January. This is also the second senior-level hire for RREEF Real Estate for Asia-Pacific over the past month. Rahul Ghai joined the company in August as director and acquisitions and asset management for Southeast Asia.

"[The appointment] completes the build out of the leadership of RREEF Real Estate's global research team. The combination of Chua and Obu at the helm of our Asia Pacific teams will be critical to our efforts to bring the unti's market insights and processes to clients in the region," said Kurt Roeloffs, the global chief investment officer for RREEF Real Estate.

RREEF has almost 600 professionals in 22 cities worldwide and has $61.8 billion in assets under maangement as of 30 June 2011.