The expansion of Eastern Consolidated continued this week with news that two former business owners have joined the company.
Olivia Wu, the founder and president of Berkeley Global, a commercial real estate brokerage firm, and Steven Zimmerman, founder and president of Direct Connect LLC, a boutique information technology executive search firm, have come aboard as associate director and associate respectively.
Each will focus on the sale and acquisition of commercial properties throughout the Greater New York Metropolitan area.
“We are delighted to welcome the creativity and leadership that Olivia and Steve bring to the table as we expand professionally to offer additional services in an accelerating market,” said Daun Paris, president of Eastern Consolidated.
Wu and Zimmerman join on the heels of Eastern’s announcement last week that former Marcus & Millichap vice president Adelaide Polsinelli and Skyline Properties founder Robert Khodadadian have joined Eastern.
While at Berkeley, Wu completed over 100 office leasing and purchasing transactions in Manhattan representing companies from a variety of fields ranging from architecture to financial services to international trade and logistics, among others. In addition to being responsible for overall operations, she was in charge of recruiting and training.
Earlier, she was a vice president with Manhattan Commercial Realty where she ranked as Top Performer of the Year among first year agents. She is a member of Tau Beta Pi Association, National Engineering Honor Society, Golden Key National Honor Society, Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society and Phi Eta Sigma Freshman Honor Society
Wu earned an MBA from Columbia University and a BS in engineering math and computer science from University of Louisville. She speaks fluent Mandarin and Shanghainese.
As the head of Direct Connect LLC, Zimmerman oversaw sales, finance, strategic planning, business development and was responsible for recruiting all new accounts.
Before founding his own firm, he was senior account manager and lead recruiter for The Brokers Group, an information technology executive search firm. Earlier he was the senior recruiter at M-Logic Inc. and an associate at Computer Sciences Corp.
Zimmerman is a graduate of Skidmore College where he earned a degree in psychology.
According to Paris, the appointments are among several that will be announced at the company in coming weeks.
“We have hired seven other people all doing investment sales,” Paris told REW last week. “They come from a diverse background with the common denominator that they are all very experienced professionals with proven track records of success.”
Eastern Consolidated brokers have amassed billions of dollars in sales over the years and, following the departure last year of Eric Anton and Ronald Solarz – who left to join Brookfield Financial – has reshuffled its senior staff, promoting Alan P. Miller and David Schechtman, both now principals at the firm, as well as Lipa Lieberman and Aliza Avital, who were named senior directors, all of whom have reputations as reliable rainmakers.
