LaSalle Promotes APAC Head Mark Gabbay to Global CEO

After raising and deploying a series of successful property ventures, the Asia Pacific boss of LaSalle Investment Management is advancing to the fund manager’s top job.

LaSalle, an operationally independent arm of property services firm JLL, announced on Monday that Mark Gabbay, chief executive and chief investment officer of LaSalle Asia Pacific, would assume the role of LaSalle global CEO on 1 January 2021.

Gabbay succeeds Jeff Jacobson, who will stay on as LaSalle chairman through at least June 2021 after a 14-year tenure as global CEO, according to a Monday press release.

“Mark’s experience and track record of outperformance have been critical to the success of our Asia Pacific business, and he possesses the right mix of skills, innovative thinking and leadership to drive LaSalle’s growth going forward,” Jacobson said, adding that he looked forward to helping with the leadership transition.

Architecting Growth

In its announcement, Chicago-based LaSalle described Gabbay as the central architect of the firm’s investment performance and earnings growth in Asia Pacific — fitting praise for the UC Berkeley architecture grad.

Gabbay joined LaSalle in 2010 as APAC CIO and became the region’s CEO in 2015. Before LaSalle, he served as managing director and head of the Asia asset finance division at Nomura and co-head of the Asia Pacific global real estate group at Lehman Brothers.

In the new role, he will report to JLL global CEO Christian Ulbrich, who on Monday hailed Gabbay as “an outstanding steward for LaSalle’s investors and employees throughout his career” and “the right leader to drive the next phase of growth”.

LaSalle Japan CEO Keith Fujii will succeed Gabbay as Asia Pacific CEO. The Asia Pacific CIO role will be shared by the company’s current head of Greater China, Claire Tang, and Nick Okumura, LaSalle’s head of Japan acquisitions.

Busy in Asian Logistics

Gabbay’s promotion caps a productive 2020 for the veteran. In April, LaSalle announced that it had raised $681 million for a Chinese warehouse development and management fund, LaSalle China Logistics Venture (LCLV). LaSalle seeded the fund with two development sites in the Shanghai area and one stabilised asset each in Tianjin, Wujiang and Huizhou.

In September, the firm closed a JPY 48.5 billion ($456 million) equity sale for LaSalle Logiport REIT to help fund the JPY 76.4 billion acquisition of stakes in four Logiport-branded logistics facilities from partners including Mitsubishi Estate and developer Nippo Corp.

In late October, LaSalle beefed up its portfolio with the on-time completion of three multi-level logistics facilities in Shanghai and the vicinity, totalling 194,000 square metres (2.1 million square feet) of logistics space. Then, last Friday, the firm said it had acquired new warehouse facilities, one near Shanghai and a second in a satellite of Beijing, to add to the LCLV fund.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the importance of efficient distribution,” Gabbay said after announcing the purchase of the two mainland properties.