Cushman & Wakefield strengthen London team with key hires (UK)

Cushman & Wakefield, the world's largest privately held commercial real estate services firm, has made two senior appointments in London, Digby Flower and Andrew Parker from CBRE. Digby Flower joins Cushman & Wakefield as a Partner and head of London Markets and Andrew Parker joins as a Partner and head of City of London Agency.

Digby Flower moves to Cushman & Wakefield after 17 years at CBRE where he was a member of CBRE's Central London Board. Digby has advised on a number of Central London's most significant occupational deals including Land Securities on the forward sale of Bankside 1 (500,000 ft² (46,300 m²)) to IPC, the pre letting of New Street Square to Deloitte (255,000 ft²) and Taylor Wessing (220,000 ft²). He has also been involved in the leasing of a number of major tower buildings including 99 Bishopsgate (320,000 ft²) and 125 Old Broad Street (325,000 ft²) both for Hammerson.

Working for the occupier, he advised State Street on the forward purchase of 20 Churchill Place, Canary Wharf (360,000 ft²), Mayer Brown on the preletting of 201 Bishopsgate (220,000 ft²) and PwC on their lease restructuring at Embankment Place (365,000 ft²).

Andrew Parker joins Cushman & Wakefield after 23 years at CBRE during which time he advised on some of the largest leasing instructions in London including British Land's 590,000 ft² Ropemaker and the leasing of the 540,000 ft² Watermark Place on behalf of Oxford Properties/UBS. Andrew has also acted on behalf of other landlords including: Exemplar Properties, F&C Reit, Hammerson, Hermes, Land Securities, MGPA, St Martins Property Corporation and has been the long term strategic property adviser to the Financial Services Authority.

Digby Flower will head Cushman & Wakefield's London Markets operations comprising the agency, investment and development functions and will work closely with James Young, and other members of the senior team to spearhead the Firm's growth in London.

Glenn Rufrano, Global President & CEO of Cushman & Wakefield said; "Cushman & Wakefield is focused on delivering the highest quality real estate services to our clients. We have a strong foundation in London and the appointments of such top talent as Digby Flower and Andrew Parker, is a reflection of the strategic growth and change that is happening at Cushman & Wakefield."

Paul Bacon, CEO of Cushman & Wakefield EMEA, "In line with our global strategic plan, we have been steadily and successfully growing our presence in London in recent years to be on a par with our leading position in New York and other major cities. With the appointment of Digby Flower and Andrew Parker, two of the most highly respected agents in the market, we are well positioned to ensure Cushman & Wakefield becomes the leading real estate adviser in London."

Cushman & Wakefield's London team is involved in some of the capital's most significant real estate projects. The Firm has instructions totalling 6.5 million ft² including; J.P. Morgan's 1 million ft² office portfolio in the City of London and 1 million ft² of offices at Westfield Stratford City. Cushman & Wakefield is also mandated on over 1.5 million ft² of occupier requirements across London and also advises the U.S. Department of State on the development of its new U.S. Embassy at Nine Elms.

Cushman & Wakefield has completed some of the world's most high profile assignments including the sale of Capital Square in Singapore, the largest lease in the US in 2011 for Shell Oil, and the largest lease in downtown New York in two decades for 1.2 million ft² at One World Trade Center to Condé Nast.

These latest high profile appointments are part of an ongoing strategic recruitment initiative by Cushman & Wakefield to secure leading talent. Recent high profile appointments in EMEA include: Mike Lindsay, from KPMG to head Corporate Finance; Simon Ward, ex-global property head at Barclays in its Corporate Occupier & Investor Services team and Markus Reinert from JLL to lead Asset Management in EMEA.

Source: Cushman & Wakefield

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