Matthew Banks, Lend Lease Real Estate Investments Inc. Our Top CEO of the Year winner headed up several big mergers and acquisitions last year. As CEO of Lend Lease's U.S. operations from 1997 to 2000, Matthew Banks was instrumental in negotiating Lend Lease's acquisition of Equitable Real Estate, its merger with the Yarmouth Group, and its acquisitions of Boston Financial and AMRESCO. He is a member of the Lend Lease Global Real Estate Board and the management committee of Lend Lease Real Estate Investments.
After receiving an honors degree in architecture from Melbourne University, Banks started with Lend Lease as project manager and rose to become branch manager, development manager and general manager. In 1995, he became CEO of Lend Lease Property Investment Services Group in Australia.
For the new millennium, Matthew Banks was given a new worldwide assignment. He is now CEO of Lend Lease Real Estate Investments-International, based in New York, and is responsible for managing all of Lend Lease's property management and advisory business outside the United States.