Cushman & Wakefield has hired Ron Chisolm as a senior vice president of client services with C&W Services' life science team, a newly created leadership position for the global commercial real estate services firm.

In his new role, Chisolm will be based in San Francisco and oversee C&W Services' portfolio of life sciences properties across North America, with a focus on providing strategic insight. In addition, he'll work closely with Cushman & Wakefield's life science advisory council to collaborate on global growth opportunities and best practices to support client needs.

“Life sciences is clearly a very important growth area for the firm,” said Jodi Swinburne, chief operating officer, C&W Services, in a corporate statement announcing the new role. “We expect to gain momentum and market share under his leadership.”

Cushman & Wakefield employs roughly 52,000 people in over 400 offices across 60 countries. In 2022, the firm had revenue of $10.1 billion throughout core services in the property, facilities and project management, leasing, capital markets, valuation and other service sectors.

Chisolm brings more than 25 years of experience in pharmaceutical and biotech manufacturing and operations, most recently as an executive vice president at JLL, where he served as a global life sciences account executive and IFM lead.

Before entering the commercial real estate sector, Chisolm spent 14 years at Roche/Genentech in several leadership positions, including head of manufacturing, head of facilities and engineering, and other strategy and process excellence roles.

Chisolm holds a bachelor of science degree in chemical engineering from Michigan State University and has earned various quality and manufacturing certifications.

Divaris Real Estate has announced a strategic leadership restructuring, appointing David Sutliff as chief financial officer of the company.

In his expanded role, Sutliff will guide the financial strategy and operational efficiencies of the Virginia Beach, Virginia-based real estate services firm.

Sutliff has served as an adviser with Divaris for the past 12 years. He is a seasoned financial professional with over 18 years of experience at KPMG. Sutliff is a licensed CPA in the state of Virginia and holds both a master of science degree in accounting and a bachelor of business administration and accountancy degree from East Carolina University.

Tony Divaris, previously the international controller and CFO, has been promoted to chief operating officer. The leadership restructuring comes at a time of significant growth for Divaris Real Estate, following a joint venture with KLNB, the acquisition of the Edge property management and engineering portfolio and the firm's recent acquisition of the McGarey Group.

Along with Sutliff as CFO and Divaris as COO, the company's executive committee includes Gerald Divaris as chairman and CEO, Michael Divaris as president and Gwen Gilbert as chief human resources officer.

Gary A. Gottlieb has joined Colliers as an executive vice president in Boca Raton, Florida.

In his new role, Gottlieb will continue to provide property services to clients in the office sector. He is a member of the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors and holds the real property administrator designation from the Building Owners and Managers Institute.

Gottlieb brings more than four decades of commercial real estate industry experience in the leasing and sale of office, retail, medical, land and development properties, most recently as a principal at Avison Young, where he represented a client list of high-net-worth private clients, regional and national developers and institutional investors. He has also directed regional expansion efforts on behalf of retailers and office users.

JLL Capital Markets Senior Managing Director Patrick Nally has joined the firm's Los Angeles office with plans to help expand the firm’s Southern California and Western region industrial practice, with a primary focus on the Inland Empire and Los Angeles markets.

Nally is relocating from the Southeast region to bolster JLL's investment sales and advisory services. He will work closely with the industrial capital markets team of Senior Managing Director Mark Detmer, Senior Director Evan Moran, Directors Matt McRoskey and Chad Solomon, and other agency and tenant representation teams in the region.

Nally brings over 13 years of experience in finance and commercial real estate sectors, having specialized in industrial capital markets for the past decade. Throughout his career, Nally has worked on transactions totaling $15 billion in total capitalization covering more than 125 million square feet of industrial space. During his tenure at HFF and JLL in Charlotte, North Carolina, the combined Southeast industrial capital markets team grew from two people to over 30 today.

Molly Millard has been promoted at Cushman & Wakefield to head its tenant representation practice in its Atlanta office.

In her new role as office tenant rep lead, Millard will oversee 30 brokers and employees while leading team growth, financial performance and client solutions in the region.

Millard has specialized in office tenant representation since beginning her commercial real estate career more than five years ago. She joined Cushman & Wakefield's tenant rep team in 2020 and advises clients in the professional services sector, representing law firms and financial companies in office lease negotiations.

Continental Realty Corp. has promoted Haley Donato to senior vice president of asset management and finance at the Baltimore-based real estate investment and management company.

In her expanded role, Donato will oversee the day-to-day operations of CRC's asset management group, responsible for the performance of more than 90 properties in 10 states totaling more than 9,000 apartment units and 7 million square feet of space. She also oversees insurance risk management, heads up the finance division and originated CRC's data science function. Donato also joins CRC's executive committee, which now is made up of a majority of women members.

Donato has worked for the company since 2012, most recently as a vice president of asset management and finance. She has more than 14 years of diversified financial and real estate experience, including previous roles at FirstBank in Denver. She earned a master's degree in real estate from Johns Hopkins Carey Business School and a bachelor of commerce degree in finance and international business from Santa Clara University.

Craig Neher joined Avison Young as a senior vice president in the firm's Honolulu office.

In his new role, Neher will handle leasing negotiations on behalf of building ownership at the Pacific Guardian Center, a 682,000-square-foot, Class A office complex featuring two high-rise towers, and the historic Dillingham Transportation Building in Honolulu's central business district. He is also tasked with growing the firm's presence across the islands.

Neher has more than 20 years of commercial real estate experience in the Hawaii markets. Throughout his career, Neher has handled landlord representation assignments in excess of 1 million square feet of mixed-use commercial properties and has provided tenant representation services for a range of national, regional and local occupiers.

Pete Klees has joined Kidder Mathews as a senior vice president in the firm's Phoenix office.

In his new role, Klees will continue to represent clients with the sale, lease and development of industrial properties throughout the Phoenix metropolitan area and the Southeast Valley.

Klees most recently served as a senior director at Cushman & Wakefield in Phoenix. He has spent the majority of his career specializing in industrial properties and has completed over 1,500 transactions totaling $1.25 billion in value on behalf of a client list of owners, occupiers, investors and developers that includes Prologis, the Hewson Co., Air Methods, Prest-O-Fit and Fine Living Products.

Ashley Elkin has joined Stream Realty Partners as the firm continues to grow its presence in the Northern Virginia office market.

In her new role as a vice president in Tysons, Elkin will handle the sourcing and execution of new business in the office leasing, investment sales, tenant and landlord representation service lines. She joins the seasoned office leasing team led by Co-Managing Directors Jeff Roman and Erik McLaughlin.

Elkin most recently served as a project manager at Beyond 2.0, an accelerator that combines IT professional development and software development to assist government and commercial clients. Earlier in her career, Elkin worked with Roman and McLaughlin at CBRE before she moved to Savills as an assistant director. She has experience in commercial sales brokerage, land development, agency leasing, project management and construction services. Elkin holds the certified commercial investment member designation from the CCIM Institute and is a member of NAIOP, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association and CoreNet Global.