Grégoire Peureux previously worked at French-Canadian real estate investor Ivanhoe Cambridge as did Rita-Rose Gagné, Hammerson’s new CEO.

At Hammerson he will join the group executive committee and focus on delivering group strategic initiatives.

Peureux was acting head of Europe at Ivanhoe Cambridge from early 2017 until September 2018, shortly after Karim Habra took up the top European job there in July 2018. Before that Peureux was European CFO.

Gagné said: 'Grégoire’s extensive experience and new perspective will ensure we become more agile and are in the best possible position to respond to this period of extraordinary change and disruption.' 

The new management team will attempt to turn round the shopping centre REIT which has had a torrid year, but avoided the fate of UK peer Intu which went into administration in June.

Since the summer, Hammerson raised £825 mln via a rights issue and the sale of its stake in its European outlet shopping business to partner APG.

Gagné replaced David Atkins at the helm of the FTSE 250 company.

Earlier this month, the combination of retailing’s long-standing problems and the coronavirus crisis also claimed the job of the CEO of Europe’s largest retail REIT, Christophe Cuvillier, at Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield.