Founder and managing director York von Pannwitz brings more than 25 years of distinguished professional experience along with a university degree in business management. He began his career in 1996 at Vivico Real Estate in Frankfurt, now part of CA Immo, where he held various positions including taking over the largest branch in Berlin, which he quickly developed into a leading market position.

In early 2006 he joined Allianz Real Estate in Stuttgart, where he was appointed to the senior management team as Chief Asset Manager Europe. In this key role, he was responsible not only for the realignment and comprehensive reorganisation of asset management but also for significantly increasing the overall occupancy rate of the approximately 300 commercial properties in the portfolio, representing a combined investment of approx. EUR 5 billion, to over 96%.

At the end of 2010, von Pannwitz left the large corporate world and founded his first company, which is today Starling Real Estate Asset Management. Building on years of successful work together, he founded Finch Properties Asset Management together with Achim Tillmann in 2014 and managed property transactions totalling some EUR 1.1 billion and yielding an average IRR of more than 25%.

At the close of 2021, the company’s asset management team and mandates were transferred to Starling Real Estate in Frankfurt, which now serves these clients as an independent and full-service provider.

Born in South Africa, he is married and the father of three adult children.

After completing her Bachelor of Science in General Management at European Business School (EBS) as well as her Master of Science in Real Estate at Cass Business School in London, Victoria Gurgiel started her professional career in early 2016 at German Estate Group (GEG), since 2019 a subsidiary of DIC Asset AG, as a financial services manager. 

Her responsibilities included leasing management, investor relations as well as supporting and controlling the realisation of various project developments in Germany ranging from EUR 40 to 350 million in value.

Gurgiel joined the Finch team in 2018. Since the beginning of 2020 she has been responsible for the Asset Management team, which was assumed by Starling Real Estate Asset Management as of the end of 2021.

Victoria Gurgiel was born and raised in Frankfurt, Germany.