David Faulkner Named ULI APAC President

ULI’s summits have become regular events for industry leaders

The Urban Land Institute (ULI) appointed David Faulkner as president for the Asia Pacific region with immediate effect, the real estate industry organisation announced on 6 August.

Faulkner joins ULI after a short break following a 16 year career with Colliers in Hong Kong, where he had served as managing director for valuation and advisory services until the end of 2019. The incoming president is now switching gears to focus on non-profit work with ULI.

“ULI is quite well known for its thought leadership and its ability to mobilise experts from all around the world on different topics,” Faulkner noted in an 11 August interview with Mingtiandi, where he shared his goals as he assumes his new role.

“What is the future of our workplaces, living spaces, retail and tourism? We are looking longer term to see how our cities can be developed in a healthier, more sustainable way.”

Faulkner replaces recently departed ULI APAC president John Fitzgerald, who joined the nonprofit in 1998 as a director and served as regional president from 2013 onwards. Fitzgerald in July joined Shenzhen-based developer Kaisa Group as vice chairman of its Greater Bay Area urban regeneration fund.

36 Years in Hong Kong

Faulkner moved to Hong Kong in 1984 to work as a valuer with the local government before stepping into the consultancy world with current ULI APAC chairman Nick Brooke’s Brooke Hillier Parker (now part of CBRE) in 1988. The London-native left Brooke Hillier Parker after fifteen years to join Colliers International in 2003.

David Faulkner joined the ULI this month

“Nobody is better placed to take up the role as president for the region than David,” Brooke said in a statement. “[He] has been an active and passionate member of ULI for nearly two decades and in that time he has served as a global governing trustee and as a member of both the ULI Hong Kong and ULI Asia Pacific executive committees.”

Since 2013 Faulkner has also served as an adjunct professor in the department of real estate and construction at the University of Hong Kong.

ULI Pushes to Improve Land Use

Founded in 1936, the Washington DC-based ULI funds research and education into land use and development around the world. In Hong Kong, the non-profit regularly hosts conferences on key issues at the juncture of real estate, city planning and urban development, with the group’s next event scheduled for 24 September this year.

The ULI has been a strong proponent of including design and land-use considerations modifications in Hong Kong’s land tendering process including lobbying for more thoughtful use of the city’s waterfront in the tendering of site 3, a plot in Central district due to be auctioned off in the coming weeks.

“Tenders were invariably awarded to the highest bidder without regard for the quality of the proposed development,” Brooke opined in a recent South China Morning Post article. “Now, […] design also becomes part of the equation.”

The institute has roughly 45,000 members around the world – 2,500 of which are located in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Australia, Philippines and South Korea.

In early July 2020 Asia-based executives were among 38 trustees added to the ULI’s global leadership including Blackstone Group managing director Tim Wang, DLA Piper’s APAC head of real estate Susheela Rivers in Hong Kong and Ping An Asset Management director Wei Wang in Shanghai.