European property and asset management team makes key hire

Cushman & Wakefield, the world’s largest privately held commercial real estate services firm, has appointed Richard Davies as a Partner and Head of Retail Property & Asset Management in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa.)

Richard joins Cushman & Wakefield in Q4 2012 after 14 years at Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) where he most recently held the position of Lead Director, Property & Asset Management in the UK.  Prior to that, he was responsible for establishing and running JLL’s country office in Turkey for three years having previously spent five years as Director and Head of UK Shopping Centre Management.

Richard will be based in Cushman & Wakefield’s European headquarters in London and will be specifically focused on growing the firm’s retail property & asset management business across EMEA.

In February this year, Cushman & Wakefield announced the appointments of Nina Jansen and Andreas Gast from JLL as Partners to jointly lead Property & Asset Management business in Germany.  Last month it announced the appointment of Sharon French as a Partner in its London Markets Property & Asset Management Team.   In the first quarter of 2012, Cushman & Wakefield has secured 16 million sq ft of new property & asset management mandates across Europe.  In EMEA, Cushman & Wakefield has 600 property & asset management professionals in 16 countries who manage 4,000 properties with a total lettable area of 16 million sq m.

Paul Bacon, CEO of Cushman & Wakefield in EMEA said:  “Over the past 12 months and in line with our strategic growth plan, we have been extremely successful in expanding and enhancing our property & asset management business in EMEA as an important stream of recurring income.  There is still huge scope to grow our property & asset management business particularly in the retail sector where we are leaders in retail agency, and we look forward to Richard joining our team to help us accelerate our progress in this area.”

Markus Reinert Partner and Head of Property & Asset Management and Investor Services, EMEA: “So far this year we have won new mandates from top investor clients on portfolios totalling some 16 million sq ft across Europe. Our success reflects the significant enhancements we have made to our service offer over the past 12 months such as strengthening our leadership teams and the hiring of several first class experts in key markets such as Germany and UK.  Richard has an exemplary track record and brings the right skills and experience to strengthen further our existing team so we can continue enhancing our service levels and grow our market share.”

Cushman & Wakefield currently has around 7,000 property & asset management professionals world-wide, managing some 10,000 properties totalling 81 million sq m of building area.