President Donald Trump nominated a former leader of commercial real estate services giant Cushman & Wakefield to head the government’s civilian real estate portfolio shortly after a shakeup at the top of the federal agency.
The General Services Administration said Edward Forst, who served as CEO of Cushman from 2013 to 2015, has been selected as the next administrator for the General Services Administration, or GSA. The U.S. Senate must confirm his nomination for Forst to assume the role.
“We look forward to the confirmation process and the continued advancement of GSA’s priorities under his prospective leadership,” Mike Rigas, the GSA’s acting administrator, told CoStar News in a statement.
If confirmed, the real estate executive would oversee the agency that, under Trump, has ramped up its focus on lowering taxpayer costs by shrinking the government’s use of office buildings across the country. Since Trump started his second term in January, he has instructed the GSA to accelerate the potential sale of federal office buildings and terminate federal office leases.
The move comes as Michael Peters is leaving his role as commissioner of the GSA’s Public Buildings Service, according to Federal News Network.
Forst most recently served as the chairman of private equity firm Lion Capital and previously spent nearly two decades at Goldman Sachs, according to his LinkedIn profile.
During the Great Recession, Forst was selected to serve as the first executive vice president and principal operating officer of Harvard University, his alma mater, to lead its non-academic affairs. He also served as an adviser to the secretary of the Treasury of the United States.
If confirmed as GSA administrator, Forst would oversee an agency of about 11,600 people and an annual budget of about $16 billion.