CBRE Appoints Alan Li as President of China Business

CBRE announced today that it has appointed Alan Li as president of CBRE China, promoting the head of its investment services division to the top spot with the agency’s mainland team.

Stepping immediately into his new role as the company’s chief executive for China, Li will be responsible for CBRE’s advisory businesses on the mainland, including the company’s Advisory and Transaction Services, Capital Markets, Asset Services and Valuation and Advisory Services departments.

Reporting to CBRE’s North Asia president, Ben Duncan, Li will continue to be based in Shanghai, where he has been working with CBRE since joining the company from JLL in 2015.

Going Local Seen as the Future

“The future of our brand in China will increasingly rely on our ability to further localize our business and solution offering to clients. Alan is the natural choice to lead this next phase of our development across China and build on our commitment to delivering client outcomes through collaboration,” Duncan said in a statement.

Li’s appointment marks the first time that CBRE has had a top leader in place for its China operation since the company parted ways with Ivan Poon in late 2015. Poon, who was hired as president in 2013, despite not having worked in the real estate industry previously, was terminated with immediate effect in November 2015 after having overseen the departure of more than 15 director-level executives during his first year running the brokerage and then failed to meet revenue targets in his second year in office.

Leadership by Committee Comes to an End

Since the end of 2015, CBRE’s China operation had been run by a committee reporting to Duncan, until Li’s appointment was announced.

Li has more than 15 years of experience in China’s commercial real estate industry, including more than 12 years at JLL before joining CBRE as a managing director in charge of its capital markets team for Greater China in 2015.