Knight Frank Chooses Bernard Ong to Head Beijing Office

Knight Frank has named agency veteran Bernard Ong to run its Beijing office as well as serving as head of project management for China. The senior hire is the third top level addition to Knight Frank’s China team in the last four months, as the property agency moves to ramp up its mainland operation.

“We are delighted to have Bernard Ong join us as Knight Frank’s new Managing Director of Beijing branch and Head of Project Management, China,” Piers Brunner, Knight Frank’s CEO for Greater China said in prepared statement. “Bolstering Knight Frank’s presence in North China is one of our top priorities.”

Ong joins Knight Frank from rival Colliers International, where he had spent more than two years as a senior director, running project management for China from the company’s Shanghai office. This will be a return engagement for the graduate of the National University of Singapore, who had spent nearly two years running Knight Frank’s project management services in China during 2012 and 2013. Ong, who has over 15 years of project management experience, has also served with Cushman & Wakefield, and Cisco Systems in the region.

In his new role, Ong will report to Alan Liu, who was appointed as Knight Frank’s Managing Director for China in May this year. Liu and Ong share a background at Colliers, and Brunner served more than 20 years at the property services firm, leaving in 2014 as its Chief Executive Officer for Asia before taking over Knight Frank’s Greater China business in October last year.

Just last month Knight Frank also brought over Bunny Wang to head up its International Capital Markets and International Project Marketing across China. Wang, who is based in Shanghai, worked under Liu at Colliers for more than a decade when he was head of North Asia for the agency.