About

As Senior Managing Director in the Global Occupier Services (GOS) group, Al oversees some of Cushman & Wakefield’s largest and most complex Occupier client relationships. Al works with senior corporate real estate and business unit executives of both Canadian-based and Global companies to understand their needs and devise solutions that will become the foundation for ongoing real estate strategies. Al has considerable experience in all phases of the real estate life cycle including Portfolio Strategy, Transaction Management, Project Management, Facility Management, and Lease Administration, and provides his expertise on a wide variety of issues such as performance management, corporate M&A due diligence, lease negotiation, portfolio optimization, sustainability practices, and real estate consolidation strategies.

In 1998, Al joined The Gordian Group (Gordian), a boutique Toronto-based real estate consulting company, and his experiences there laid the foundation for his future in Cushman & Wakefield’s GOS group. At Gordian, Al worked with clients such as Call-net, Sprint Canada, Carlson Marketing, Maritz Canada, Quebecor, Towers Perrin, Watson Wyatt, Canadian Tire, ORC and Sirius Radio Canada, across a variety of portfolio strategy, transactional and project management assignments. Eventually, Al was directly responsible for Gordian’s two largest clients, CGI and AMEC, whose combined global real estate portfolios consisted of over 500 sites and approximately 7 million square feet. During this time, Al built a Lease Administration practice to support these two clients. Eventually rising to Senior Vice President, Al was additionally responsible for the Toronto operations of the firm.

Al joined Cushman & Wakefield in 2008 through the acquisition of The Gordian Group. In 2009, Al was asked to lead the Canadian GOS Transaction Management team and became responsible for the growth and direction of this business line in Canada. Over the next 5 years, Al helped win several new client relationships with companies such as AMEC, YMCA, Sun Life, EY, Magna, Celestica, and Sears, and as a result of these wins, grew the GOS Transaction Management team to 11 members. Of special note, in 2012 Al was instrumental in winning a global transaction management contract with Microsoft and was appointed the Global Account Lead for that business. In 2014-2015, Al led the successful pursuit of an exclusive 8-year Global Portfolio Strategy and Transaction Management contract with RBC. Upon award of this business, Al transitioned to a full time Global Account Lead role and built a global Transaction Management team of 24 members to manage ~ 400 transactions a year across RBC’s 2,400 sites, 24-million-square-foot portfolio.

In 2018, Al transitioned back into a multiple client facing executive role and has led the firm’s newest global relationship with Bombardier, among several other client facing and business development roles.

Prior to starting a career in real estate, Al was a lawyer practicing Environmental Law, and while he does not provide legal advice to our clients, they benefit from his legal training in many of the solutions he provides.

Education

• Bachelor of Arts Degree, University of Waterloo
• Bachelor of Laws Degree, Osgoode Law School, York University

Clients

• Wood
• Microsoft
• Bombardier
• RBC
• Celestica
• Sun Life
• IG
• EY
• GE
• Magna
• Rogers Communications
• Sears
• Foresters
• Aviva

Assignments

Global Lead – Microsoft and RBC Transaction Management Teams

Areas of Specialization

Portfolio Strategy, Transaction Management, Lease Administration, Real Estate Outsourcing, Account Management, M&A Due Diligence and Integration Strategies

Affiliations

• CoreNet Global Member
• Former Law Society of Upper Canada Member