Asset Services Insights - Fall 2016

Q Since your time with the CIA has ended, I have to assume, despite your current role with Cushman & Wakefield, that you find it hard to pull away from being actively involved in the intelligence and security community. I do miss the mission, but I did my bit and now it’s somebody else’s turn. But you’re right—once you’ve been on the “inside,” it’s hard just to walk away. My familiarity with the world of intelligence, and now with the business of commercial real estate, has put me in the unique position of helping the government understand what the private sector’s information needs are in order to better protect critical infrastructure assets. I am one of a handful of people in the commercial facilities sector, which includes commercial real estate, with TOP SECRET security clearances that enable me to read classified terrorism intelligence. I act as a sort of translator to make sure our property managers, and the industry as a whole, understand what the current threat level really is, without revealing the intelligence that it is based on, and translate their information needs into requirements that are tasked back to the intelligence community. I DO MISS THE MISSION , BUT I DID MY BIT AND NOW IT’S SOMEBODY ELSE’S TURN. BUT YOU’RE RIGHT – ONCE YOU’VE BEEN ON THE “INSIDE”, ITS HARD JUST TO WALK AWAY.

The Asset Services business has certainly felt the impact of the industry’s shift. Building owners recognize that loss of access to their real estate assets, or disruptions in critical services, can have enormous impacts on their bottom line and create potential regulatory or contractual liabilities. As a result, the previous practice of maintaining a basic emergency action plan for a property morphed into the broader practice of business continuity; the resilience of all critical building operations and systems must be assessed and fortified to ensure the possibility of disruption is minimized. Q How does our Global Security and Resilience platform differentiate our Asset Services platform among our competitors? During my time at legacy Cushman & Wakefield, and after I established my own consulting firm, I provided security, emergency preparedness, and response and business continuity consulting services to Cushman & Wakefield’s clients and then to my own. Much of the work I did focused on identifying the actual risks properties face, and I conducted dozens of all-hazard risk assessments on properties both here and abroad. These analyses then formed the basis for the security, emergency preparedness and response, and business continuity programs for each property. Our ability to help our clients understand the risk environment in which their assets operate and how to navigate those risks is one of our more significant differentiators. Q What excites you most about our Asset Services business? Asset Services manages some of the most iconic properties in the world. Whether it is the Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco or the Kingdom Tower in Saudi Arabia, it is an honor for Cushman & Wakefield to be chosen among a field of very competent firms to manage these assets. I find the opportunity to support Asset Services in helping to protect these magnificent properties and their occupants very exciting and rewarding.

Also, I was asked to participate on a White House study on government intelligence sharing with the private sector to help protect critical infrastructure, so I’m still involved to some extent. Q Why is the Global Security and Resilience platform so important to the company, and Asset Services in particular? The commercial real estate business has changed dramatically since 9/11. After the World Trade Center towers were destroyed, companies realized that if they were denied access to their corporate real estate assets, or if the assets went offline for whatever reason, they were in grave danger. Likewise, the government realized the risk this posed to the economy as a whole. The government began to require publicly traded companies and those in regulated industries to meet certain business continuity standards, central of which is that companies must be able to continue to provide their essential services throughout any disruptive incident. Since most of our clients at Cushman & Wakefield are held to those business continuity standards, we have to certify we meet them as well. Therefore, one of my primary corporate responsibilities is to develop a new business continuity program for the new, merged platform, to update it as the organization changes over time and to ensure that it is regularly tested. The program includes three basic components: an emergency preparedness and response program for our corporate offices; a crisis management process to manage major disruptive incidents affecting Cushman & Wakefield or our managed properties; and the periodic conduct of a Business Impact Analysis that identifies all of the critical business processes that Cushman & Wakefield provides its internal and external stakeholders and ensure that each is sufficiently resilient so that we can continue to provide them during major disruptive incidents.

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