Hines' Ranks Thin out as Former Execs Beef Up Zethus Website

Another Texas connection to Internet-based commercial real estate services will launch a transaction platform site in January, an e-business resulting from the departure of four key executives from Houston-based Hines Interests.

Zethus Inc., a web-initiative created by Goldman Sachs, is headed by Jim Hime, cofounder and CEO, who had served as Hines’ senior vice president in central finance. Tom Bacon, Hines’ former senior vice president, is Zethus’ cofounder and COO. In the past 10-12 months, former Hines executives also jumping ship are Chris Hughes, a former vice president in Washington, D.C., and Ann Kifer, former vice president of corporate communications. Hughes serves as Zethus’ senior vice president in the sales division and Kifer is senior vice president of marketing communications.

Zethus’ senior management team, announced yesterday, also includes Jeffrey Scott, cofounder and president of the sales division; Frank Sullivan, principal of the sales division; and Jeffrey Walker, senior vice president of business development and general counsel. Scott previously worked as a managing director and partner of the Real Estate Capital Markets Group at Arthur Andersen LLP. Sullivan was a managing director for Jones Lang LaSalle Inc.’s investment sales and finance group and co-head of its investment banking group and Walker, a partner with the law firm of Arent Fox Kintner Plotkin & Kahn, PLLC.