OSLO—One of the world's most active real estate investors has its first full-time CEO. Karsten Kallevig has been appointed CEO of Norges Bank Real Estate Management, succeeding Trond Grande in overseeing the real estate group effective Jan. 1, 2016.

Kallevig joined Norges Bank Investment Management, the sovereign wealth fund of Norway, in 2010 as global head of of real estate strategies. He became CIO of real estate the following year.

NBREM was set up as a separate entity within NBIM in July of last year, and NBIM deputy CEO Grande has had the day-to-day responsibility for the real estate platform since October 2014. Norges has made some of its biggest real estate deals internationally in the year and a half since NBREM was established, including its co-investment with Prologis on the 231-property KTR Capital Partners portfolio earlier this year. 

"We are very pleased that Karsten Kallevig will be taking on this big challenge," says NBIM CEO Yngve Slyngstad. "The fund expects to invest around 50 billion kroner in real estate"—approximately $US5.7 billion—"every year going forward. Real estate differs from the fund's two other asset classes, equities and fixed income. Kallevig has the background and experience to lead this organization."