CBRE’s Digital Partnerships & Investments group is responsible for managing CBRE’s interaction with the external technology ecosystem. Each year, the team engages with over 1,000 ecosystem players to find opportunities for partnership, investment, and acquisition in support of the company’s forward-looking strategies. These ecosystem players include early-stage real estate technology companies (startups), established technology companies, venture funds, and more. The digital partnerships & investments team currently manages a portfolio of direct and indirect (fund) investments, strategic partnerships, and vendor relationships that have created significant value for the enterprise. The team is also deeply involved in developing CBRE’s forward-looking strategies and advises executive levels of the organization on some of the most substantial challenges facing our businesses and the industry at large. This role will report to the Global Director of Digital Partnerships & Investments.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Strategy
Work with LOB and technology leadership, corporate strategy, and digital and tech strategy to evaluate partnership, investment, and acquisition opportunities within the “proptech” space – articulate / translate the business value these opportunities could create for CBRE
Understand and track changes to the industry resulting from digital trends, digitally enabled business models, changing client needs, macroeconomic shifts, etc.; develop a point of view on disruptive threats and breakout opportunities
Understand and track changes to the external real estate technology (proptech) ecosystem for LOB(s); report on key themes of change / investment, significant deals, and develop a perspective on where CBRE should look to invest based on these changes and the threats or opportunities they present
Develop partnership, investment, or acquisition strategies based on meaningful ecosystem trends; create partnership, investment, acquisition targeting studies from scratch
Develop executive perspectives or recommendations on key-competitive actions and their implications to CBRE’s core businesses and strategic initiatives
Work with digital & tech strategy to develop strategies for CBRE’s core businesses and help inform build, buy, partner decisions
Prepare and present verbal and written reports of ecosystem analyses and findings to inform CBRE’s digital strategy, opportunistic investments, and more
Deal Execution
Partner with corporate development, procurement, and legal to develop, structure, and negotiate partnerships, investments, and acquisitions in the real estate technology and venture capital space
Perform strategic and financial analyses on opportunities to inform deal terms
Own and manage the relationship with the target company or fund – maintain positive relationship with target throughout negotiation process
Portfolio Management
Support CBRE’s existing portfolio of “proptech” partnerships – find opportunities to better propagate the portfolio into CBRE’s operations and real estate portfolio
Help track and manage the financial and strategic value CBRE’s partnerships create for the enterprise – report on the financial and strategic value quarterly
Partner with procurement to develop processes to track internal and client spend across technology companies to identify high-potential opportunities for strategic partnership
Misc.
Mange multiple project workstreams and stakeholder relationships, including setting project objectives and managing team responsibilities
Analyze data around markets and the operations of real estate assets across multiple data sources; provide leadership with powerful facts and analyses that outline solutions and drive change
Contribute to board decks, investor day presentations, earnings reports, client deliverables, etc.
Manage, coach and mentor other digital partnerships & investments team members
QUALIFICATIONS
To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
EDUCATION and EXPERIENCE
A minimum of a bachelor’s degree in business administration, economics, statistics, engineering, or related quantitative discipline
5-7 years of experience in management consulting, corporate strategy, finance, startups, VC/PE.
Experience structuring ambiguous problems, evaluating competitive actions, analyzing, and structuring investments / partnerships / M&A, and developing corporate / digital / technology strategies
OTHER SKILLS and/or ABILITIES
Experience working with startups, VC’s, companies, and lawyers to develop, structure, and execute on investments, partnerships, acquisitions a plus
Conceptual understanding of key-technologies and its ability to address business challenges or create new business models
Capable of distilling large amounts of information into meaningful insights that are useful to CBRE’s executive leadership group
Prior experience working with startups and / or an understanding of common startup and venture capital terminology and valuation techniques – experience working with funding data to inform partnership and investment theses a plus
Familiarity with the commercial real estate industry and real estate technology a plus
Excellent communication skills with demonstrated ability to perform a deep analysis and articulate information concisely and precisely to various types of audiences – comfort communicating directly with executive leadership
Demonstrated command of written and oral communication and strong business writing skills
Mastery of commonly used business productivity software (e.g., PowerPoint, Excel, Office, etc.)
A solid team player and an independent thinker that is both curious and analytical
MBA, CFA, FRM, CAIA are a plus
#INDSJ
NOTE: An additional requirement for this role is the ability to comply with COVID-19 health and safety protocols, including COVID-19 vaccination proof and/or rigorous testing.
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