Societé Generale Corporate & Investment Banking has appointed James Jakeman to head its real estate structured finance team in the UK as it seeks to increase its lending activities in the country.

In this new role, based in London, Jakeman reports to Jean-Francois Despoux, global head of Real Estate & Lodging and Grégoire Simon-Barboux, deputy global head of Real Estate & Lodging Finance.

Jakeman joins from Aurum Real Estate, a private property investment company based in Mayfair, where he was a partner. Prior to this he was an executive director, co-head of UK Real Estate for Lehman Brothers. He originally joined Lehman Brothers in 2000 as an analyst in the real estate team.

Jakeman started his career as a chartered surveyor at Jones Lang LaSalle in 1998.