Two new associates have joined the team at Colliers International Group Inc. (NASDAQ:CIGI, TSX:CIG) in Parsippany, announced David A. Simon, SIOR, Executive Managing Director and New Jersey market leader. Nicole Jadoo of Ridgefield, N.J., and Jonathan Schlussel of Teaneck, N.J., are focusing on retail leasing and investment sales, respectively.
Jadoo previously served as a lead leasing consultant for Aimco, where she managed the leasing of a 266-unit residential community, and as a sales agent for Coldwell Banker, where she sold residential properties in Bergen County. Her diversified real estate industry experience also includes a prior account executive role at Apple Title Agency. A member of the International Council of Shopping Centers and the New Jersey Association of Realtors, Jadoo earned a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University.
For Schlussel, who graduated from Brandeis University with a bachelor’s degree in economics in 2015, the associate role at Colliers marks his first full-time industry position. Previously, Jonathan has held internship positions with various firms in the commercial real estate sector including Broad Street Development, The KABR Group, Hirschman Realty and Cushman & Wakefield. Schlussel holds a New Jersey Real Estate license.
For Colliers, the addition of Jadoo and Schlussel marks the continued strategic growth of the global commercial real estate services firm’s New Jersey team. During the past year, the firm has brought on nine new salespeople, and Simon envisions expanding the firm substantially over the next several years.
•••
Arthur Mirante, Avison Young Principal and Tri-State President, announced that highly regarded commercial real estate industry veterans Reid Berch and Joseph Lagano have joined the company on Long Island, New York.
Effective immediately, Berch becomes a Principal of Avison Young and Lagano a senior director. They will continue to work as a team while expanding the firm’s industrial sales and leasing services throughout the region and specializing in the real estate needs of clients on Long Island and, particularly, at John F. Kennedy International (JFK).
Berch brings more than 30 years of commercial real estate experience to Avison Young, while Lagano has worked in the industry for 14 years. Both join the company from Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) on Long Island, where Berch was an executive vice-president and Lagano was an associate vice-president.
•••
Lane Office has hired Courtney Wray as a Project Administrator, Courtney Wray.
Wray was previously an assistant account executive in the insurance industry. Prior to this, she worked as a project coordinator for a commercial moving company where she managed client moves and maintained project timelines and goals.
She graduated from the University of Albany with a B. S. Sociology.
In her new position, Wray will generate quotes, processes order entries, set up deliveries and installations, and oversees project order status.
•••
Newmark Grubb Knight Frank (NGKF) is pleased to announce that Fred Smith has joined NGKF as vice chairman. Smith has completed more than 30 million square feet of tenant representation assignments for major organizations including Facebook, AT&T, Metropolitan Transit Authority, XL Global Services, CBS Corporation, PwC, Oracle, Air France, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Macromedia and more.
Prior to joining NGKF, Smith served as vice chairman at Cushman & Wakefield, where he worked for 31 years. In 2016, Smith lead a team that secured the leasing agency of 717 Fifth Avenue; a prestigious 350,000-square-foot Plaza District building. Smith was responsible for sourcing in 2015 The Sears Holdings Transfer of 261 stores totaling 42 million square feet, into a REIT, enabling Sears to raise approximately $2.7 billion. Smith and his team represented Bayern LB in the restructure of a 100,000-square-foot lease, and in selling a 25 percent interest in 560 Lexington Avenue.
In 2014 he represented Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), one of the world’s leading financial groups, in a headquarter lease for 210,000 square feet at 1221 Avenue of the Americas. With a transatlantic team, Smith represented XL Capital in its consolidation of six locations into one European headquarters in London. A condo interest was created with Marks & Spencer. XL sold and leased back its space and took a profit of $55 million in three weeks (from purchase to close).
At closing, this was the largest global transaction between Cushman & Wakefield U.S. and European operations and Smith received the firm’s Global Deal of the Year recognition.
Smith with a bi-costal team also closed the largest sale leaseback in Silicon Valley history, the ninth largest real estate transaction in the United States that year. The transaction involved an 800,000-square-foot corporate campus synthetic lease conversion in Mt. View, California, that was sold to Goldman Sachs and now operates as Google’s headquarters.
•••
Polsinelli, an Am Law 100 firm, announced that Ying Wang has joined the New York office of its Capital Markets and Commercial Lending Practice Group, where she will partner with clients to navigate the complex world of international and domestic banking, finance and capital markets.
Prior to joining Polsinelli, Wang held positions with two of the largest Chinese international banks. She has extensive experience in cross-border banking and finance transactions, including acquisition and leveraged financing, commercial real estate financing, syndicated and bilateral lending transactions, and debt products.
Wang regularly advises international financial institutions and other corporate clients in such areas as derivative products including rate, credit, interest, foreign exchange and commodities, securities lending, banking regulation compliance, internal corporate governance policies, and other complex matters in international banking, foreign exchange and capital markets.
She brings strong relationships with the international banking community to the firm and expects to build on these relationships to help broaden and deepen the practice scope for Polsinelli.
Wang speaks frequently at bar and industry seminars on topics addressing the latest regulatory, financial and legal developments. She is a member of the Banking Law Committee and a previous member of the Futures & Derivatives Committee of New York City Bar. She sat at the Legislative and Policy Committee of Institute of International Bankers (IIB).
Wang holds her LLB, with distinction, from Peking University School of Law, her J.D., cum laude, from Peking University School of Law, and her LL.M. from New York University School of Law.
•••
TIAA Global Asset Management has hired two new Europe-based managing directors for its real assets institutional distribution team, effective July 1st. Per Frederiksen, Ph.D., will focus on growing the firm’s institutional business in the Nordic countries while Dan Greene, CFA, will help lead efforts to develop and enhance relationships with global and regional investment consultants. They join an expanding and dedicated global distribution team with deep real assets experience and established business relationships.
TIAA Global Asset Management’s real assets unit includes real estate, agriculture, timber, infrastructure, energy and private debt and has $150 billion in assets under management. In recent years, its European presence has been expanded to serve sophisticated institutional investors in the region. In 2014 the company helped launch, and now fully owns, TH Real Estate, its London-based real estate investing affiliate that today is one of the largest real estate managers in the world. It has also launched several new real asset funds with co-investments from a range of European institutions. The firm is growing its US client base by providing access to alternative investments to smaller corporate and public defined benefit plans, as well as to foundations and endowments.
Mr. Frederiksen joins TIAA Global Asset Management from Dimensional Fund Advisors and previously held positions at BlackRock, Nordea Markets, and Jyske Bank. Mr. Greene was most recently with Invesco, where he spent 18 years in a variety of positions including global head of consultant relations, product management and marketing. He is based in London.
•••
National Cooperative Bank (NCB) announced that Shaun Kelley has joined as Chief Credit Officer. To this role, Shaun brings over 36 years of experience in commercial loans and portfolio management.
As Chief Credit Officer, Shaun will be responsible for setting loan policy, managing the credit and loan closing processes, provide credit guidance throughout the organization and assure documentation is in compliance with loan committee approvals and regulatory audits.
Prior to joining NCB, Shaun spent 15 years at PNC Bank N.A. in McLean, Va., most currently as an executive vice president responsible for all credit oversight, approval, underwriting and quality for PNC’s $3.6 billion commercial loan portfolio in Greater Washington and Commonwealth of Virginia. He also oversaw a team of professionals dedicated to this endeavor across six local offices. Prior to PNC, Shaun was the Chief Credit Officer at Riggs National Bank in Washington, DC. Shaun has also held positions at the First Union National Bank in McLean, Va., and American Security Bank in Washington, D.C.
Shaun holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Boston College and an MBA degree from Babson College. His community activities include Chairman of the Loudoun County Sanitation Authority, dba Loudoun Water and a member of the Loudoun County Affordable Dwelling Unit Advisory Board and chair of its finance committee. He is a past chairman of the County’s Economic Development Advisory Committee.
•••
CBRE Group, Inc. announced that Elaine Philis has joined CBRE Capital Advisors as director to strengthen the firm’s capital-raising activities.
Ms. Philis is a highly regarded commercial real estate professional with nine years of experience in capital raising and investor relations, in addition to six years of real estate finance underwriting and transactional work. Based in CBRE’s Midtown Manhattan office, Ms. Philis will work closely with Brad Barsily, who heads institutional capital-raising activities in the Americas.
During the course of her career, Ms. Philis has raised more than $1 billion in equity capital for domestic and international real estate private equity funds and separate accounts from institutional investors, endowments, corporate and state pension funds, insurance companies and foundations. Additionally, she has also structured, underwritten and negotiated over $2.5 billion in mortgage loans and joint venture equity transactions.
Ms. Philis is the second key appointment made by CBRE Capital Advisors in the month of July. Last week, CBRE announced that Alex Virtue joined the firm as senior managing director in Los Angeles to expand the firm’s investment banking advisory capabilities while providing coverage in the West.
Most recently, Ms. Philis was with TGM Associates where she focused on investor relations and capital raising. Prior to TGM, Ms. Philis was Head of Equity at Lend Lease of America, focusing on equity capital in the Americas. Previously, she was a director in the capital raising groups at Westbrook Partners and Tishman Speyer.
Ms. Philis is a graduate of the University of Connecticut and the University of Connecticut School of Law, and received her MBA in finance from the Stern School of Business at New York University. She is a member of New York Women Executives in Real Estate and New York Commercial Real Estate Women, where she previously served as a member of the Board of Directors and President, respectively.
