CBRE has appointed Kaela Fenn-Smith into a new role as UK head of client partnerships.
Fenn-Smith takes up the position having spent the past three years growing CBRE’s ESG consulting business as managing director, sustainability and ESG consultancy. That consultancy business will now be led by three sector leads – Amanda Stevenson, Ed Blackburn and Allan Wickham – and will report into the wider CBRE consulting business, led by Ken Raisbeck.
In her new role, Fenn-Smith will leverage her broad experience and deep knowledge of clients’ requirements, coupled with the “hugely valuable” learnings she has gathered from three years building CBRE’s ESG consultancy, to lead the business’s key strategic clients and client partner programme.
“I have loved my last three years leading and growing our UK ESG consulting team and am now excited to be appointed into this newly formed strategic role which puts further emphasis on providing wider property and business solutions to clients in a client-centric approach,” said Fenn-Smith. ”I look forward to partnering with colleagues and our clients and bringing the full power of CBRE to deliver impactful strategies and solutions in ever-evolving market dynamics.”
She added: ”Immersing myself in ESG over the last three years and developing our ESG services in a sector-wide capacity, combined with my broad property experience and understanding of client needs, allows me to help our clients tackle some of the biggest challenges they face, including ESG and climate impacts on real estate ownership and how these impact future investing.”
Fenn-Smith said she was looking forward to engaging in broader conversations with clients in her new role, helping to deliver more cross-business strategic advice.
She added that the evolution of the ESG consulting team, with Stevenson, Blackburn and Wickham taking over leadership responsibilities, was part of the firm’s ambition to bring fresh talent up through the business.
Fenn-Smith has more than 30 years’ experience in the real estate sector, including seven years at Landsec. She will continue to report to CBRE UK chief executive Ciaran Bird and will remain on the firm’s management board.
CBRE’s establishment of the head of client partnerships role follows a number of new “head of” positions at the consultancy. In August, it promoted Rob Madden to head of UK leasing, working in partnership with head of UK occupier Julie Ennis.
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