Despina Katsikakis

Global Lead, Total Workplace • United Kingdom

Despina Katsikakis (image)
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125 Old Broad Street
London, EC2N 1AR
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Office: +44 203 296 2856

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Despina Katsikakis

Global Lead, Total Workplace • United Kingdom

For more than 35 years Katsikakis has led innovation, research and implementation of transformative business environments and exemplary real estate developments worldwide.

As Cushman & Wakefield’s Head of Occupier Business Performance, she provides input across the firm’s global business on the rapidly-changing context of work and its impact on employee engagement, productivity and wellbeing. 

With these factors increasingly determining the leasing decisions of leading corporations, Katsikakis’ unrivalled insight on the future of work benefits occupier clients – as well as the building owners and landlords seeking to attract them – through repositioning real estate to drive top line performance. 

She serves on the advisory board of Delos™, the pioneers of Wellness Real Estate™ and founders of the WELL Building Standard and regularly lectures around the world, writes and contributes to media, research and publications on the future of the workplace.

in the News

Authority Magazine Article Despina (image)
“Why we need to take a hospitality mindset" with Despina Katsikakis
We need to bring new skills to the industry; we don’t need more chartered surveyors, we need more analysts, tech designers, curators, experience managers, human behavior experts, and environmental and wellbeing experts. We as an industry need to take a hospitality mindset to focus on customer satisfaction and ongoing loyalty and service rather than transactions.

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CNN Feature (image)
Lessons from China: How global business has changed forever
Commercial real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield has built a prototype called the "Six Feet Office," which encourages workers to continue social distancing when they return to the office.

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Fast Company (image)
Our offices will never be the same after COVID-19. Here’s what they could look like
It's hard to imagine now, but we will one day have to go back to our offices. So how will work...work? That's the question Cushman & Wakefield is answering already.

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Despina Washington Post (image)
The post-pandemic workplace will hardly look like the one we left behind
Through Cushman & Wakefield’s joint venture with Chinese real estate developer Vanke, the firm has already advised thousands of companies in Asia about returning to work.

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Business Insider feat Despina (image)
10 Real-Estate Insiders Lay Out the Future of Flex-Offices, and How Employers are Preparing Now
The costs for flex operators will be similar to those at traditional at traditional offices, Despina Katsikakis, Cushman & Wakefield's head of occupier business performance said.

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ABC News (image)
What offices may look like in a post-pandemic era, if they exist at all
Cushman & Wakefield developed a best practices guide and has also made a prototype of a "Six Feet Office," a reimagined office space that encourages social distancing at work and implemented a full-scale example.

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SERVICES

Total Workplace

Total Workplace brings industry leading thought leadership, strategy and guidance to help clients implement innovative and consistent solutions through the use of tools, technologies and best practices.

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Global Occupier Services

Helping our clients make intelligent business decisions to get maximum value from the spaces they occupy.

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Experience per SF
Experience per SF™ is Cushman & Wakefield’s proprietary tool that gives you insight into the engagement and experience of your workforce.
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Related insights

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Research • Workplace

Workplace Ecosystems of the Future

In this report, we examine what the future of the office will look like in a post-COVID-19 world by exploring investor, occupier and placemaker feedback and analyze historical work from home (WFH) penetration rates.
David Smith • 21/12/2020
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Experience per Square Foot™ (XSF)  2.0

With the launch of Experience per Square Foot™ 2.0, Cushman & Wakefield is again taking the lead in getting its clients the immediate insights they need to strategize and plan as the global pandemic accelerates the evolution of the workplace and workplace ecosystem. 
Bryan Berthold • 05/11/2020
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Video • Workplace

What’s your take…on the workplace?

Global Total Workplace Lead, Despina Katsikakis talks about what the pandemic has meant for the workplace, accelerating the trends that have been apparent for the last decade and more.
Andrew Phipps • 29/09/2020
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Recovery Readiness: A How-to Guide for Reopening your Workplace

The “Recovery Readiness: A How-to Guide for Reopening your Workplace,” outlines some of the best thinking and practices that our more than 53,000 professionals have compiled across the globe and also includes insights from key partners.
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Staying Informed and Collaborating Virtually

In the third podcast of the “Rebalancing the Work-Life Experience” series, our attention shifts to two further drivers of workplace experience: staying informed and collaborative teamwork.
Nicola Gillen • 24/04/2020
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Leadership and Culture: Creating a Workplace That Excels

In the second podcast of the “Rebalancing the Work-Life Experience” series, we focus on two key qualities of a successful workplace: leadership and culture.
Rachel Casanova • 09/04/2020
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What we know, what is critical and what’s next?

In this first podcast we provide a fundamental grounding of remote working through a three-stage approach, backed up by quantitative data analysis.
Despina Katsikakis • 24/03/2020
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How Corporate Real Estate Can Influence Company Culture After the Pandemic

Based on an episode of What’s Next in Corporate Real Estate podcast, which focuses on; why the pandemic proved so undermining for company culture, how corporate real estate needs are changing as businesses try to lure their employees back to the office, and why the days of flagship offices might be behind us.

Despina Katsikakis • 06/08/2021
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Leading an Active Recovery to Build the Best Workplace Experience

Leading an Active Recovery shows how an Agile approach can engage the C-suite in real estate decisions that balance the codependent – and often contradictory – needs for efficiency, effectiveness and engagement.
Despina Katsikakis • 10/06/2021
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Leading an Active Recovery to Build the Best Workplace Experience

Leading an Active Recovery shows how an Agile approach can engage the C-suite in real estate decisions that balance the codependent – and often contradictory – needs for efficiency, effectiveness and engagement.
Javier Bernades • 10/06/2021
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Accelerated Shifts: Facilities Management and Workplace Experience Podcast

From enabling the mass transition to homeworking to ensuring employees can work in clean, safe environments, workplace and FM practitioners have played a key role in the response to the global pandemic crisis.
Bryan Jacobs • 11/05/2021
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Podcast • Workplace

Podcast: Managing Workplace Experience: Lessons from Retail

The digital world has revolutionized how consumers shop. What lessons can businesses learn from the retail world - which is much further down the digital transformation road?
Nicola Gillen • 26/04/2021

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