Hannah Loxton is the Head of Private Capital at Wentworth Capital, a real estate private equity firm. Hannah studied financial economics and accounting through a co-op scholarship at the University of New South Wales, as part of this program Hannah was able to gain significant work experience while studying. She explained how she enjoyed this model of education as it gave her a “strong technical foundation”.
After graduating, Hannah began her career in M&A and then Capital Markets, she started her career amidst the GFC so she focused on special situation investments at a restructuring firm. Following this role Hannah moved to KPMG where her role became focused on M&A real estate transactions including onshore and offshore fund structuring projects where she was able to travel a lot and expand her global investment perspective. It was through this role Hannah decided she wanted to continue focusing on Real Estate and with her background in restructuring and M&A this gave her the perfect launch pad to transition into Real Estate Private Equity. This led her to Wentworth.
Wentworth focuses on investing across a variety of real estate asset classes, with private equity strategies across the portfolio. Wentworth looks for unique opportunities targeting assets with significant uplift opportunities. Once the assets are fixed and positioned for institutional ownership, they are exited to deeper pools of capital. It wasn’t just the exciting work that Wentworth is known for that drew Hannah to the firm, it was also the values embodied by the founders. “The culture at Wentworth is team first, always. We all support each other. I’d say our interns as much as our CEO, Alastair Nash, can contribute to our weekly team meetings and strategies. It’s a very open environment…we’re very entrepreneurial driven, so we always want to try and think outside the box.” One of the unique traits of Wentworth is their encouragement of Junior staff giving them exposure early on allowing them to develop their technical strategic skills quickly. Consistently encouraging curiosity and learning at all levels is all part of the culture developed at Wentworth and this attracts the best and brightest. Hannah focuses on raising and structuring capital for the firm’s fund mandates – whether through co-investments or other vehicles. Now that their first flagship fund has been raised, a key part of her role involves strategic planning: aligning long-term investment objectives with investor capital allocation priorities and leveraging the firm’s unique access to opportunistic real estate deals led by Paul Apostoles. Hannah played a lead role in launching the Wentworth Real Estate Private Equity Fund, the firm’s flagship discretionary, co-mingled fund. This was five years in the making and marked a significant milestone in the business’s evolution. She oversaw its structuring, market positioning, and development as the first in a series of opportunistic funds targeting under-loved assets across all real estate sectors. The capital raise exceeded their initial target and closed significantly higher. This achievement came in a difficult capital raising environment and was successful due to strong relationships from families, superannuation funds, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies and pension funds, and the strength of the underlying investment thesis. Hannah added, “With Josh Peel now joining the Capital team, it’s an exciting new chapter, and we are well positioned for our next phase of growth – be it at Wentworth or across our platforms: Area53 and Urban Logistics Co”.Outside of her role at Wentworth Hannah alongside her Wentworth colleagues helps mentor teams competing in the PropConnex Real Estate Competition. “Supporting the next generation of talent is key to everyone’s success. PropConnex is a great foundation for university students, because they can get exposure to real estate private equity that they wouldn’t generally get access to in the junior stages of a career”. Hannah explained how much she and the team enjoyed getting to know the UNSW team and seeing their enthusiasm grow and their strategies develop and mature from draft to presentation. She emphasised how the process of mentoring the PropConnex Competition teams reinforced the belief that supporting the next generation of industry leaders is crucial for growing the industry.
As always, I asked what advice she would give to someone just starting out. She spoke about the value of “trying it all” and not putting too much pressure on having it all figured out from the start. “It took me over ten years to find the role I really love,” she shared, “but I kept trying, and each step helped me get closer to something that aligned with my values.” She explained that when your work reflects what matters most to you, you’re less likely to second-guess yourself, even during the tougher moments. “If you have the right people around you and you enjoy what you do, that’s a pretty good foundation for a long and fulfilling career.”
Thank you to Hannah, for sharing her incredible career advice with us and for her ongoing support of the PropConnex initiative. Watch Hannah’s interview below or listen via Apple or Spotify.
