Former JLL exec Alan Li will take over the CBRE investment reins in mid-December
CBRE made another major change in its regional management this month as it announced that Alan Li will take over as its head of Capital Markets for Greater China, based in Shanghai.
Li, who previously served as Head of Capital Markets for China at JLL will be charged with improving the performance of the agency’s brokerage of investment properties, an area where it has often struggled to compete with some other agencies in the region, including Li’s former team at JLL.
When Li formally begins his new role in mid-December, he will be reporting to both CBRE’s North Asia President Ben Duncan and Richard Kirke, Managing Director for the company’s Asia Pacific Capital Markets team.
“Attracting such top talent is also evidence of our success in building a strong Capital Markets platform in Greater China, and confirms the strength of our global and regional platforms,” Duncan and Kirke said in an email to clients.
The message clarified that Li will be “working closely” with Johnny Shao, Executive Director and head of the Investment Properties team for CBRE in China, but that all Capital Markets team members across Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China will now report to Li. Previously, Shao had been CBRE’s top executive for its investment brokerage teams in China, after joining in 2014 from Forterra Trust.
The message from Duncan and Kirke did not mention the role of CBRE’s long-time investment team leader Greg Penn, whose LinkedIn profile lists his status as Managing Director for Capital Markets for Greater China and Korea. Before Kirke took over the APAC Capital Markets role at the beginning of this year, Penn, who joined the firm from JLL in 2007, had served as Managing Director for Capital Markets across Asia for CBRE.
The appointment of Li to the Greater China role comes within one month of three other major leadership changes in the region for CBRE.
Early last month the company announced the sudden departure of China president Ivan Poon, followed one week later by the resignation of long-time executive and former China CEO Chris Brooke. Late in November, the company announced that former JLL executive Tom Gaffney would be taking charge of its Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau offices following the upcoming departure of Craig Shute.
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