GlobeSt.com: So how does a biology major from Santa Barbara end up running a global real estate company?

White: I was fascinated by science from a very early age but came to the conclusion in my early days in college that the major was not the main event. The learning experience was the main event as was the process of getting from A to Z. To that extent, an education in hard science gave me great training for running a business.

GlobeSt.com: During our recent CEO Roundtable, Ray described himself as a hands-off manager, that he manages as he would like to be managed. How do your style and capabilities differ?

White: The character of this company is not defined by me but by the individual customer relationships that occur at the field level. When customers think about a services firm, ours or any others, they think in terms of those relationships. A CEO's job is to make sure the people who interact with those customers are as successful as they can be and to remove any obstacles that might be in their way. What Ray was saying was that such a company is not about the CEO.

GlobeSt.com: But it was also brought out that a leader must impose his own philosophy. I understand you don't want to be the focus, but doesn't it all come down to you?

White: The role of leadership comes down to two primary things: first is to set long-term objectives and create a vision for this company, what this company wants and what it should be. Second, we must be caretakers of that vision and those objectives. Leadership's impact comes in developing a strategy to build the company, in our case around the proposition of serving customers. That strategic thinking translates into a plan. That plan is implemented by these market leaders around the world. Our job is to set that strategy, define that plan and help those leaders implement it.

GlobeSt.com: So what does CBRE need to do to be all it can be? What strategies do you see in front of you?

White: As a company, we've clearly differentiated ourselves within the industry. That causes us to think about the responsibility of this leadership position and how we can use our scale and breadth of services to redefine the quality of our services. That's our responsibility and our opportunity--to create a model for how we serve owners and occupiers that's better than any other models, including our own. We have an opportunity based on a diversified platform of services and, substantially, a wholly owned global footprint. That's a compelling value proposition to customers.

GlobeSt.com: And there are a handful of global firms—including JLL and C&W—who could say exactly the same thing.

White: We participate in an industry that's populated with a handful of companies--JLL, C&W, Staubach, Trammell Crow—with talented leadership pursuing a very similar value proposition as our own. The point of differentiation today, and it may not last forever, is the distinct differences in the number of services we can offer our customers and where we can offer them. And it's not a straightforward proposition for any of these firms to replicate what we've already built.

GlobeSt.com: When we talked last year you mentioned infill locations. Where does that push stand now?

White: We don't need to expand product lines or make any significant additions to our geographic footprint. That said, we're always interested in building our existing business lines and bolstering our existing geography through acquisition.

GlobeSt.com: What areas are you looking at?

White: Every market; I wouldn't rule anything out. We're always looking for good people in every market. We're particularly interested in Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union and Asia Pacific. There it's more of a product-line focus, such as property management and components of corporate outsourcing.

GlobeSt.com: Where are the growth areas for CBRE?

White: Absolute growth for the company will come from a couple of drivers. One is the leasing markets, which are in the nascent stages of recovery. If history holds true, that cycle will run five to seven years. Given the massive liquidity in the corporate real estate market from an investment standpoint, we see nothing to imply that the attractiveness of real estate as an asset class will diminish.

GlobeSt.com: At your annual market forecast, your guest speaker, Robert Rubin, was more cautious than optimistic. Your own John Powers was more hopeful, short term, at least. How do you reconcile the two?

White: Rubin provided one end of the spectrum. If you look at the empirical evidence—forecasts of GDP, job growth and national and global vacancy rates—those are the primary drivers and they're the metrics we look to in order to determine where this business is going. And all of them are favorable to our business. We look at the short and mid-term, and we'll focus on the facts as we know them.

GlobeSt.com: Since you went public in June, your stock has nearly doubled. What's the future look like?

White: Over the mid- to long term this company should produce revenue growth between 7% and 9% compounded annually.