London-Headquartered Global Adviser Has Recently Reorganised North American Business
Savills North America has appointed David Lipson as its chief executive, effective 1 January.
Lipson replaces Mitch Rudin, who has been CEO since July 2020 and becomes chairman of Savills North America.
Lipson has been with Savills North America, and its predecessor firm Studley, since 1987, and until his appointment as president of Savills North America in January 2021 headed its Washington DC office.
Savills said he will be responsible for leading the “next stage” of Savills North America’s growth. He will continue to represent North America as a member of the Savills Group executive board. Rudin will retire from the Board effective 31 December 2023.
Mark Ridley, chief executive at Savills, said in a statement: “[Lipson’s] experience will be instrumental in leading a strong management team to deliver our growth aspirations for the business over the coming years.”
Lipson added: “Savills has been much more than a work place for me and since joining as a summer intern in 1987, it has truly been an honour in helping develop the business and I look forward to guiding it into the future.”
In its most recent results for the six months ended 30 June 2023, Savills, one of the UK’s top five brokers, said it was weathering the storm in real estate markets globally, with certain regions like the UK and sectors like industrial recovering, but it reduced expectations for the year.
The London Stock Exchange-listed company posted group revenue of £1,011.4 million, down 2.5% on the first half of last year’s £1,037.4 million.
In North America, where the group is principally dependent on leasing activity by corporate occupiers, revenue reduced by 5% to £126.2 million from £132.3 million in the same period last year. This was driven by strong performances in the New Jersey, Philadelphia and Southern California markets which largely offset a substantial decline in revenue from the New York office market.
During the half year period it undertook a reorganisation of the North American business including both cost saving initiatives and focusing more on its global occupier solutions service. The North American business posted an underlying loss of £2.9 million (first half 2022: £0.6 million underlying profit).
Founded 166 years ago, Savills entered the North American commercial real estate tenant representation arena in 2014, when it bought 1954-founded Studley for $280 million and changed its name to Savills Studley. It rebranded to Savills in 2019.
The acquisition of Studley added to global offices in Asia-Pacific, Continental Europe, the Middle East and the UK.
Since the merger, Savills has grown significantly in North America picking up brokerage offices, teams and consultants in Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Minneapolis, Nashville, North Carolina, Phoenix, Seattle, Silicon Valley, Southern California, Toronto and Washington, D.C.
Source : Costar