Brookfield Asset Management Appoints Managing P...

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - May 11, 2009) - Brookfield Asset
Management Inc. (TSX: BAM.A)(NYSE: BAM)(EURONEXT: BAMA) today
announced the appointment of Leo van den Thillart to the position of
Managing Partner, Private Institutional Equity, effective June 1,
2009. Mr. van den Thillart is a senior executive with significant
experience in building and managing a funds placement business. He
also has strong expertise in international marketing in the
alternative investments space.

Mr. van den Thillart's responsibilities at Brookfield Asset
Management will include managing the client relationship and fund
operations group, implementing fundraising strategies and managing
private equity institutional relationships, which he will carry out
from Brookfield's London offices.

Mr. van den Thillart was previously Senior Managing Director and
Global co-Head of the Private Funds Group at Bear Stearns & Co., J.P.
Morgan. Based in London, he was responsible for the overall strategic
and operational management of an international advisory and placement
businesses with offices in London, Munich, New York, Toronto, San
Francisco and Melbourne. The team he led placed billions of dollars
from international investors in private equity, real estate and real
asset funds. Mr. van den Thillart was also the Vice-Chairman and
Executive Director of Crane Capital Associates, Inc, a leading global
private equity firm he helped co-found in London in 1997 and where he
worked for a decade.

"We are very pleased that Leo has accepted to join the Brookfield
team," said Jeff Blidner, Senior Managing Partner at Brookfield Asset
Management. "His accomplishments and experience base, as well as his
network of deep institutional relationships make him an ideal
candidate to run our private institutional equity activities."

"Brookfield has an outstanding reputation as an asset manager," said
Leo van den Thillart. "Its focus on real assets and its operational
capability make it extremely well positioned to meet the needs of
investors in the current market environment. I am thrilled to join
the organization at this juncture, and look forward to working with a
dynamic institutional equity group as we pursue opportunities to grow
the business."

Brookfield Asset Management Inc., is a global asset management
company focused on property, power and infrastructure assets, has
approximately $80 billion of assets under management and is co-listed
on the New York and Toronto Stock Exchanges under the symbol BAM and
on NYSE Euronext under the symbol BAMA. For more information, please
visit our web site at www.brookfield.com.

Contacts:
Brookfield Asset Management
Denis Couture
SVP, Corporate and International Affairs
[phone]
[phone] (FAX)
[e-mail]
www.brookfield.com


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