Jones Lang LaSalle Realigns, Cuts Staff
Chicago-based Jones Lang LaSalle has shuffled its global management deck and announced staff cuts in its England-based operation. Alastair Hughes, currently CEO for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) has been named CEO for Asia Pacific, succeeding Peter Barge who becomes chairman for Asia Pacific. Christian Ulbrich, currently leading Jones Lang’s German operations, becomes CEO for EMEA and joins the global executive committee. As Chairman for Asia Pacific, Barge will provide strategic oversight of global business line development, and continues as chairman of Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels until he retires in 2010.
The firm also announced it is trimming up to 80 jobs, or about 6%, of its U.K. workforce. The culprit? England’s moribund property markets.
FirstService Corp. Buys Stake in GVA Williams
In both a strategic move and a sign of further consolidation of the U.S. commercial brokerage industry, Toronto-based FirstService Corp. has inked a deal to buy 65% of New York’s GVA Williams brokerage firm. GVA Williams joins FirstService’s other real estate divisions, including Colliers International, FirstManagement Partners, the largest manager of residential communities in North America, and TFC, North America's largest provider of property services through franchise and contractor networks.
The deal is expected to close by the end of September, when it will be renamed Williams Real Estate, a FirstService Company.