British Land on Thursday appointed Chris Grigg to be its new chief executive and replace Stephen Hester who left the property developer last month to run the re-capitalised Royal Bank of Scotland.

Mr Grigg, 49, was most recently chief executive of Barclays (NYSE: BCS - News) commerical bank, but had spent 20 years at Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS - News) where he became a partner. His expertise was in capital markets and derivatives. Before he left he was head of financial institutions in the European financing group.

Mr Grigg, who will take up his new post at British Land on January 12, joined Barclays in 2005 and took over the role dealing with business and commercial banking last year. Last month the bank said he was leaving to pursue other interests.

The appointment may surprise investors because of Mr Grigg's lack of property experience but British Land's shares rose 23½p or more than 4 per cent on Thursday to 559p.

The position became vacant when Mr Hester left in November to become chief executive at RBS, where he had previously been a non-executive director, when Sir Fred Goodwin stepped down.

Chris Gibson-Smith, British Land's chairman, said Mr Grigg had been chosen "after an extensive selection process which considered candidates with both property and non-property backgrounds." He said Mr Grigg's background would "blend strongly with those of British Land's."

Mr Grigg said he was "enormously enthusiastic about the challenges that lie ahead." Property companies have fared badly in the credit crunch as asset values have slumped.

Mr Grigg has a first class degree in economics from Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He is married with five children and lives in Hertfordshire.