Going international

Real Estate Weekly, Oct 30, 2002

ALEC MONAGHAN, DIRECTOR CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD INTERNATIONAL SERVICES GROUP

Start spreading the news: Alec Monaghan, international real estate executive, is now based in New York, New York.

"New York affords me the opportunity to be in a globally central time zone and work with the decision makers among U.S. multinationals," said Monaghan, who recently was named a director, in international services group at Cushman & Wakefield.

Based on his knowledge of Cushman & Wakefield's global capabilities, Monaghan is now assisting Cushman & Wakefield brokerage and corporate services professionals in developing international business. The international services group is responsible for helping Cushman & Wakefield professionals on a worldwide scale by capitalizing on the firm's presence in business centers around the world.

"Alec is a tremendous resource for our clients both domestically and internationally," said John B. Coppedge III, executive vice president, International Operations, C&W. "His experience and proven success in Europe and Asia will prove invaluable."

"I am using my knowledge of our international operations and emerging trends in world markets to assist corporations in optimizing their real estate portfolios," Monaghan said.

Monaghan has been with Cushman & Wakefield for 20 years, having been a broker in the Philadelphia office for 13 years. In 1995, he was appointed director, corporate services, Asia, and relocated to Hong Kong. He was responsible for representing the real estate interests of major U.S. multinationals throughout Asia.

"I was in Hong Kong leading up to the time of the handover between the British and the Chinese governments," he said. "Real estate really drives Hong Kong so it was a fascinating city to do business in. But in many ways, since the agreement had been reached in 1987, the handover had been factored into the market as it was widely anticipated."

As the only American in a start-up operation, Monaghan found he had some advantages over the competition. "We had tremendous success securing new business relationships because the corporate real estate executives were young and many were new to Hong Kong," he said. "In Hong Kong you weren't dealing with long established real estate management."

In 1998, he relocated to London, where he provided strategic portfolio advice to several corporate accounts, including General Motors, Dell, Citigroup and Boeing. He was also responsible for coordinating European assignments referred by Cushman & Wakefield professionals across North America.

"I had studied at the London School of Economics as part of my graduate education, so the transition into London was smooth," he said. "Cushman & Wakefield and what today is Cushman & Wakefield Healey & Baker had been together for eight years, and had a strong Trans-Atlantic relationship and broad European coverage. I brought knowledge of U.S. multinationals and was able to foster and promote good working relations between Cushman & Wakefield and the European operations."

Monaghan will be using Cushman & Wakefield's multidisciplined approach to solving clients' challenges in his new post at the firm's World Headquarters on Sixth Avenue.

"We have people that are trained as economists, MBAs and engineers that allow us to take a strategic approach to real estate," he said. "Our clients are much more sophisticated today, and we are as well. We can solve client challenges through such services as structured finance, property management, financial services, etc. Real estate is a much more important part of the balance sheet now than it was 10 or 15 years ago. We get to know our client's business first and then work with the client to develop business solutions that are practical because we know real estate."