The European Public Real Estate Association (Epra) has appointed Philip Charls (58), as its new chief executive officer, with effect from 1 October 2007. Charls, currently general manager of the Dutch Chamber of Commerce for Belgium and Luxembourg, will succeed Nick van Ommen (60) who has led Epra as ceo since May 2000. Charls has held his position at the Dutch Chamber of Commerce since 2001 and prior to that was chief executive officer of RVS-Insurance Belgium, part of the ING Group, for seven years.