Cushman & Wakefield has appointed Matthew Bouw as chief executive for Asia-Pacific and Europe, the Middle East and Africa, effective at the start of next month, a move that sees long-term EMEA chief and leading United Kingdom real estate adviser Colin Wilson step down at a time of a flurry of high-level personnel changes across the region's commercial real estate industry.
In a newly created role, Bouw will oversee a single operating model across both regions, a shift that Cushman said will ensure the "scale and balance of services to drive growth and offer clients better global connectivity and access" to talent.
Cushman said that the move will help it operate under a single strategy, letting a combined business to benefit from: greater flexibility to focus on the most important investments and resources across key geographies, sectors and services; a unified strategy on key initiatives around data, technology and transformation; an ability to leverage its top talent across regions; an opportunity to scale best practices from both regions; and to drive key initiatives focused on cross selling, sales enablement and effectiveness.
The move marks nearly a full house of changes at the top of leading United Kingdom brokers in recent weeks with Knight Frank today announcing a new UK Board, CBRE announcing yesterday that its United Kingdom and Ireland CEO Ciaran Bird was stepping down, JLL announcing just over a week ago that Stephanie Hyde was moving on as chief executive, as reported, while John Munday has recently taken over from long-time Colliers United Kingdom CEO Tony Horrell.
Bouw has led the APAC region as chief executive since 2017. During his 13 years with Cushman & Wakefield, he has also held global executive positions based in the Chicago office, including global chief administrative officer and global chief HR and strategy Officer. In these roles, Bouw was involved in the merger of the firm’s legacy entities in 2014-15, as well as the process to buy DTZ in 2011. Prior to joining Cushman & Wakefield, he worked across a variety of industries and for several large global companies, including PwC, Aviva, Orica, Leighton and UGL. Bouw will relocate to London to focus on the growth of both regions.
As part of the planned transition, Wilson will step down as chief executive, EMEA, and leave to pursue the next chapter in his career, Cushman said. He will continue in an advisory role to ensure an orderly transition of responsibilities. Wilson is one of the United Kingdom's well-known advisers who started in the London office capital markets team.
Prior to this role, he was head of the United Kingdom and Ireland and has served on the European executive committee since 2015.
He joined DTZ (now Cushman & Wakefield) in 1996 and was appointed director in 1998. Active in the Central London investment market since 1988, he has advised major investors and developers on some of the United Kingdom capital’s most important schemes. He also ran the central London investment team from 2002-2012 and was national coordinator for investment agency between 2004 and 2009. He served on the United Kingdom board between 2005 and 2008 before his appointment as head of the United Kingdom and Ireland in February 2012.
A member of the RICS Governing Council between 2013 and 2017, he also launched Inspire, Cushman & Wakefield’s United Kingdom diversity and inclusion initiative, in 2016.
George Roberts is head of Cushman & Wakefield in the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Cushman said in a statement that Wilson's "immeasurable contributions to the company and the EMEA region in particular have been widely recognised and impactful over his 29 years with the firm."