Our People

Nassar has of 25+ years of experience in European real estate lending and investment banking. During his career he has completed €45bn+ of CRE debt transactions.

Nassar founded Brookland in 2009, a multi-award winning real estate investment banking firm, to provide specialist and independent advice to the European real estate markets following the global credit crisis. Brookland is active in debt arranging (loans and capital markets), special sits/restructuring/workouts and sales and investment advisory (NPLs/SS).

Nassar previously worked at Merrill Lynch where he was a Managing Director responsible for a number of real estate finance product areas including the European CMBS conduit business. Prior to his career in banking he practiced as a solicitor at Clifford Chance for several years.

Nassar is chair of CREFC Europe, the trade association for the real estate finance market in Europe. He has been on their board of directors for the past 3 years and also chaired CREFC’s CMBS 2.0 Committee. He has been involved in industry consultations with the Bank of England and the European Banking Authority and has contributed chapters and articles for publication.

Nassar has an LLB (Hons) and an LLM from the University of London.

Georghios focuses primarily on the execution of transactions and has extensive experience in real estate investment banking, across a wide range of transactions in the UK and continental Europe. Georghios joined Brookland in 2013 and subsequently became an equity partner in 2018.

During his time at Brookland, he has worked on activities including debt arranging (loans and capital markets), sales and investment advisory (debt, real estate and operating businesses), equity raising and restructuring/workouts.

He has acted for a diverse client base, including private equity investors, government agencies, banks and other lenders, loan servicers, housing associations, asset managers and family offices.

Notable transactions include the £550m High Yield Bond issuance for Pinewood Group (2019), the £2bn+ restructuring of the BMI Healthcare/GHG debt & equity structure (2018) and the sale of a portfolio of 300+ high street retail properties for £250m+ (2017).

He is fluent in English, Dutch and Greek, and holds an MPhil in Real Estate Finance and a BA in Economics from the University of Cambridge.

Ausaf is the Founder of Coombe Advisors, a financial advisory firm he established in 2011, which focuses primarily on wealth management. Prior to that he was Head of Sales and Marketing at Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management Limited following a 21 year career at Merrill Lynch, where his last role was Head of EMEA Global Private Client.

Ausaf joined Merrill Lynch in 1985 as an Investment Banker in London where he was involved in the establishment and management of various country funds, which allowed international investors to access the emerging equity markets of Asia. He moved to Hong Kong in 1990 and lead investment banking coverage of India, where he managed some of the earliest transactions by leading Indian corporates entering the international capital markets for both debt and equity offerings. Ausaf moved to Singapore in 1995, and was appointed Chief Administrative Officer of the Asia Pacific Region in 1998. He was then named Chief Operating Officer, Asia Pacific/Australasia, in July 2000.

Today, Ausaf pursues a portfolio career where he sits on the boards of several companies and charities, acts as an expert witness in private banking cases, invests directly as an angel investor and has recently authored a book on Islamic architecture.

Jim possesses over 35 years of banking experience, with particular expertise in commercial real estate loan servicing, operations, asset management and debt restructuring.

Previously, Jim served as Director of Debt Solutions at Capita Asset Services, Europe’s largest independent commercial real estate loan servicer. Responsible for servicing over €35bn worth of mandates.

Over the course of his career, he has built several high-performance teams, and managed large operational platforms in the banking and financial sector. Jim holds extensive pan-European experience across multiple commercial real estate classes, spanning residential, healthcare, retail and hospitality. He has overseen highly complex commercial real estate debt restructurings, delivering optimal solutions through a process of consensus building amongst stakeholders.

He has played a prominent role in the development of the loan servicing sector and is a regular participant at industry events.

Mahbod Nia brings a wealth of experience spanning real estate investment, debt and advisory which he can draw upon as an advisor to Brookland, helping support its growth and development.

In addition to his role with Brookland, Mahbod is currently serving as Chief Executive Officer of Mack-Cali Realty Corporation (NYSE: CLI), a publicly traded real estate investment trust focused on office and multi-family assets in New Jersey.

Mahbod was formerly Chief Executive Officer of NorthStar Realty Europe Corp (“NRE”), a NYSE listed REIT focused on European properties from 2015 to 2019. He also served as a member of NRE’s investment committee and board of directors.

From 2017 to 2019, Mahbod was also a Managing Director at Colony Capital Inc. and member of the European Steering Committee.

From 2014 to 2017, Mahbod served as Managing Director, Head of European Investments of NorthStar Asset Management Group (“NSAM”) where he worked to establish the company’s European investment platform, rapidly growing it to $2.6bn in Assets Under Management across 9 countries and 5 asset classes. This platform was spun-off in 2015 to create NRE, which was sold to AXA Investment Managers - Real Assets in September of 2019, realizing a 16% IRR for shareholders since its inception.

Prior to joining NSAM in 2014, he acted for PanCap Investment Partners, a European real estate investment and advisory firm., working closely with a number of leading investment firms including Goldman Sachs' Real Estate Principal Investments Area (REPIA).

From 2007 to 2009, Mahbod was a Senior Executive Director at Goldman Sachs. Prior to 2007, he served in various positions at Citigroup Inc. (formerly Salomon Brothers).

Paul has over 35 years of commercial real estate finance experience, gained in a range of executive roles spanning real estate, corporate banking and capital markets.

Previously, he served as a member of the Bank of Ireland’s Executive Management Team (over 15 years), its Group Credit Committee (over 13 years) and as Chair of the Private Equity Governance Committee and Commercial Real Estate Risk Forum.

During his tenure at the Bank of Ireland he also established and developed the overseas property lending units covering US, UK and Germany for the bank's Corporate Banking division, with oversight for over €20bn of committed lending.