NEW YORK CITY-Ernst & Young LLP is expanding its Construction and Real Estate Advisory Services (CREAS) practice in Midtown, appointing E&Y veterans Maureen Welch and Josh Herrenkohl to key leadership roles here. Welch will lead the group’s national corporate real estate practice, and Herrenkohl assumes responsibility for the group’s real estate investor services team.

In her new role, Welch--who has 28 years of strategy and operations experience--will focus on a wide range of services for global organizations across multiple industry sectors. Her responsibilities now include portfolio strategy, location advisory, occupancy cost reduction, sourcing and vendor selection, governance and control, process improvement and technology strategy.

As a thought leader and former consultant, Welch, who rejoined E&Y in 2009, tells GlobeSt.com that her goals include continuing to bring “innovative yet cost effective” solutions to clients by coupling strategic vision, industry experience and operations capabilities. “With corporate construction and transactions down, we see renewed interest in life cycle management and a deeper respect for facilities management, particularly in technical environments such as pharma, healthcare and manufacturing,” she says, in an e-mail.

With more than 16 years of experience in the commercial real estate and technology consulting sectors, Herrenkohl has previously worked with Capgemini and the Government of Japan before rejoining E&Y in 2004. His new position will involve business and operational strategy, as well as technology planning. “As a goal, I want to help organizations and the industry as a whole reduce their cost of operations, more effectively manage operating risk and improve effectiveness through better processes, automation and operating strategies,” Herrenkohl says, in an e-mail to GlobeSt.com.

By concentrating on private equity, REITs, sovereign wealth funds, financial institutions as well as the hospitality and construction sectors, Herrenkohl is calling for more transparency in the investing community, especially as new regulations and lease accounting changes come down from the US Financial Accounting Standards Board.

“Transparency and more effective reporting and analytics are becoming increasingly important given renewed scrutiny on the part of investors, regulators, capital markets and internal management,” he says. “Yet, many organizations are not effectively organized with the appropriate processes, tools and controls to be able to meet these demands.”