Cushman & Wakefield’s EMEA Hospitality team continues its strategic expansion with another two Partners and a Senior Surveyor joining to significantly bolster its EMEA hotel transactions offering. The team has also recruited a highly-experienced Partner to lead its hospitality research function to service clients across the region.
Cushman & Wakefield hired Jonathan Hubbard as Head of EMEA Hospitality last year to significantly grow its EMEA hospitality practice. Since then Hubbard has made several senior hires to expand the firm’s capabilities, including Brien Giuntini, Partner – Hotel Transactions, who joined Cushman & Wakefield in Frankfurt from CBRE Hotels in October.
The new arrivals in the Hotel Transactions team are:
- Rob Seabrook, Partner, has joined Cushman & Wakefield to lead transactional activity across EMEA, working closely with Frederic le Fichoux, who leads hotel transactions across Continental Europe. Seabrook previously led CBRE’s UK hotel investment team. He has nearly 30 years’ investment experience and has specialised in hotel investment for the last 17 years, advising on single assets as well as large portfolios. Notable transactions include the sales of the Jupiter Portfolio for £160m, the Regency Hotel at 100 Queensgate, London, for £110m and the Fitzpatrick hotel portfolio in Dublin for €150m.
- Ed Fitch, Partner, joins this month. He was previously Executive Vice President in JLL’s EMEA Hotels & Hospitality Group, providing acquisition advisory services to hotel investors across the region. He spent five years with JLL in Singapore and, since returning recently to Europe, has acted on major UK branded portfolios and some of Europe’s most prestigious hotel properties with clients including major lending banks, private equity groups, high-net-worth investors as well as listed and private hotel companies.
- Lib Dear, Senior Surveyor, has joined from CBRE Hotels where she was worked in the Capital Markets team in London handling investment sales.
In addition, Borik Vokrinek will join Cushman & Wakefield in May as Partner, Strategic Advisory & Head of Hospitality Research EMEA. He will be based in Prague and will focus on developing and using Cushman & Wakefield’s hospitality research to drive investor strategy. He has more than 20 years’ experience in the hospitality industry across Europe, Africa and Asia Pacific. Vokrinek joins from Hyatt where he was Regional Vice President Feasibility & Development Finance for EMEA & South-West Asia. Prior to Hyatt he spent more than six years at Hilton, as a Senior Director dealing with Feasibility & Investment Analysis, based both at Hilton’s EMEA HQ and in Istanbul. He also spent five years in the Asia Pacific market, including spells in Shanghai and Sydney.
Jon Hubbard, Head of EMEA Hospitality, Cushman & Wakefield, said: “It gives me great pleasure to welcome Rob, Ed, Lib and Borik to the team. We have already seen the positive impact of the new recruits on our pipeline of work and I know each will play a significant role in enhancing our work for our clients. We have strengthened our hospitality platform across EMEA over the past year with high-calibre individuals joining at all levels and, with the arrival of Ed and Borik, we have specifically built on our investor contacts with the important Asian markets. Together with our clients, we are seeing the results as our momentum builds in the market.”
