CBRE Hires New U.S. Industrial Head Away From Cushman & Wakefield

CBRE has lured away one of Cushman & Wakefield's top executives.

John Morris will join CBRE as Americas Industrial & Logistics Leader in November 2019, once certain contractual restrictions expire at C&W, where he held the same position. Adam Mullen has been CBRE's industrial leader since 2016; he will continue to oversee the market until Morris arrives.

Mullen will also be named the market leader of CBRE's Philadelphia office as of Jan. 1, where he will oversee the company's operations for all asset classes. He will take that position in January once current market leader Bob Walters retires. For the 10 months in which Mullen will hold both the Philadelphia and Americas I&L positions, CBRE Industrial's Chicago head, Chris Zubel, will also take increased national responsibility to lighten Mullen's workload.

At C&W, Morris worked to integrate retail and industrial services to provide a seamless experience for clients that wanted better integration of their retail locations and supply chains. As for Mullen, he pioneered CBRE's similar practice, dubbed its Omnichannel Initiative, and Morris will oversee that collaborative practice when he arrives.

CBRE's Omnichannel Initiative connects more than retail and industrial brokers; it brings to bear the company's analytics and research divisions to track the demographics of both labor and consumer pools. The company also can engage its property management arm to boost efficiency at clients' retail, industrial and even headquarters properties, like it has done with Sprint since 2008.

Morris will operate out of CBRE's Chicago office, as he has done with Cushman & Wakefield. Mullen will be moving from Atlanta to Philadelphia by year's end.