CBRE, the Dallas-based commercial real estate services and investment firm, has made several key leadership changes—and they’re all internal moves designed to leverage emerging opportunities.
CBRE President and CEO Bob Sulentic said the new responsibilities “play to each executive’s unique strengths and capitalize on their outstanding track records of driving growth and excellence.”
“These changes will help us realize the full range of significant opportunities we foresee for our clients, people, and shareholders,” Sulentic added in his statement.
The leadership moves
Danny Queenan, a longtime CBRE executive who has served as CEO of the company’s Advisory Services segment since 2000, has been named CEO of Real Estate Investments (REI). One of CBRE’s key strategic objectives is to increase capital investment in its REI businesses, company said in a statement, adding that Queenan “has a proven record of value creation as a developer/investor.” He previously led the REI segment in 2018 and 2019 before taking on his advisory services CEO role. Earlier in his tenure, he was CEO of Trammell Crow Company (TCC), CBRE’s development subsidiary.
Mike Lafitte, who currently has dual roles as CEO of both REI and TCC, will now focus on his CEO role at Trammell Crow Company “to further build this business,” the company said, noting that TCC has “grown significantly” in the U.S. and established a growing presence in the U.K. and continental Europe under Lafitte’s leadership. Lafitte has also assumed oversight of CBRE’s Client Care program, which focuses on “driving measurable, integrated solutions for the company’s largest investor and occupier clients.”
In other moves, Jack Durburg has been named CEO of CBRE Advisory Services, after most recently serving as CEO of the company’s Global Workplace Solutions (GWS) business segment. A full-service real estate outsourcing business serving the world’s largest real estate occupiers in more than 100 countries, GWS produced more than $17 billion of revenue in 2021. Previously, Durburg served in a number of top CBRE roles including Global COO and Group President and CEO of the Americas.
Chandra Dhandapani has been named CEO of Global Workplace Solutions (GWS), after most recently serving as COO of GWS and Chief Transformation Officer for CBRE. She joined CBRE as Chief Digital & Technology Officer in 2016, leading a transformation of the company’s digital strategy and tech infrastructure.
Chris Kirk, CBRE’s COO, has been given “elevated responsibilities” in his role. He now shares responsibility with CBRE’s president and CEO, Bob Sulentic, “for driving excellence across the entire company,” and has “dotted-line operational oversight” of the three business segments. Kirk has also assumed direct oversight of CBRE Project Management, which remains part of the GWS segment, and will report to Dhandapani in doing so.
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