Dennis Yeo is leaving Colliers after more than 21 years.
The changeover in top leadership for real estate brokerage Colliers International continues this week as the company’s managing director for Singapore, and former interim Asia CEO, is reportedly leaving the firm for rival CBRE.
Dennis Yeo is leaving Colliers after more than 21 years with the property services firm to take on a regional role with CBRE covering the industrial real estate sector, according to an account in Singapore’s Business Times.
This latest senior management shift comes shortly after new Asia CEO David Hand took over the helm of Colliers for Asia during June. The Toronto-based company has also seen changes back at headquarters as international real estate brokerages appear to be jockeying for position as the commercial real estate market rebounds.
Colliers and CBRE Trading Team Members
Yeo’s defection to CBRE from Colliers comes as the two companies appear to be trading directors in recent months.
Less than two weeks ago Colliers announced that former CBRE executive Nigel Smith would be taking over the role of Hong Kong managing director with the company later this year. Smith is replacing Richard Kirke, the former MD for Hong Kong with Colliers, who left the Canadian company in 2014 to become head of CBRE’s capital markets division for Asia, in a move that seems to parallel Yeo’s change.
According to the account in the Business Times, several other members of Colliers – from their industrial department – have also joined CBRE in Singapore in recent months. The Singapore paper said that Yeo reportedly resigned from Colliers last week, citing industry sources and an apparently premature LinkedIn update by Yeo which has since been deleted. The outgoing managing director is expected to officially join CBRE in October.
At the global level, Colliers’ CEO Doug Frye stepped down unexpectedly last month, shortly after Colliers was formally spun off from FirstService, its parent company. FirstService chairman Jay Hennick is now chairman and CEO of Colliers and COO Dylan Taylor has had president added to his namecard.
Yeo Familiar with the China Market
Although Yeo has been based in Singapore, he has previous experience working regionally. The agency veteran acted as interim CEO for Asia at Colliers from the time that Piers Brunner resigned in 2014 until Hand stepped in last month.
In addition to his MD role, Yeo also headed industrial services and investment sales for Asia. Also, during 2008 and 2009 Yeo supervised Colliers offices in Taiwan and in mainland China.
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