The world's largest commercial real estate services firm is adding to its C-suite by naming Anuj Kadyan, an executive with a history of advising artificial intelligence and tech firms, to a newly created position at CBRE Group: chief technology and transformation officer.
Kadyan, who is currently a senior partner at McKinsey & Co., where he serves as co-leader of the advisory firm's technology services practice, is expected to begin his new role at CBRE on May 15. Kadyan is expected to relocate to Dallas, home of CBRE's global headquarters, for the job, the firm told CoStar News.
Recently, CBRE's stock took a hit from fears of AI possibly shaking up public pricing of commercial real estate services firms. CBRE CEO Bob Sulentic addressed AI concerns on the company's latest earnings call last month, telling investors most of CBRE's businesses were insulated from such risks. Sulentic also said on the call that CBRE is using AI to help it leverage its real estate data.
In speaking about Kadyan's new role at CBRE, Sulentic said in a Monday statement that CBRE will benefit from his extensive experience across technology, transformation and strategy.
"This combination will be especially powerful in helping us to further differentiate our products and to operate our business more efficiently,” Sulentic said.
Kadyan has experience leading large-scale technology and AI transformations for major companies outside the tech sector, CBRE said in the statement. He has worked for McKinsey for more than 17 years in the U.S., Europe and Asia.
Prior to his current role at McKinsey, Kadyan led the telecom, media and tech practice in India. He has an MBA from Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management and a bachelor's in engineering from the National Institute of Technology in India.
For Kadyan, he said this is an exciting time to join CBRE.
"Data, insight and scale — combined with the right strategy — are attributes that will define success in the future," Kadyan added in a statement. "CBRE is the sector leader across all these attributes, and I look forward to working with the team to help the company fully capitalize on them to drive growth and great client outcomes.”
Kadyan will oversee CBRE's digital and tech, transformation and strategy teams, CBRE said.