CHICAGO, IL- Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited announced on Thursday that their Chicago-based Vice Chairman Robert O'Brien will also run their global real estate group in addition to remaining U.S. real estate leader. And he tells GlobeSt.com that being a Chicagoan has enormous benefits for anyone assuming such global responsibilities.
“Chicago has always had one of our [country's] strongest real estate practices,” he said, “and has the respect of real estate industry leaders around the world.” In particular, many world-class REITs, private equity firms and services and investment managers like Jones Lang LaSalle call the city home, and working here has allowed O'Brien to forge long-standing relationships with other professionals around the world.
O'Brien first joined Deloitte in 1983. He has led the U.S. member firm's real estate practice for three years. In the past, he was their audit and enterprise risk management leader for real estate and the global real estate funds initiative leader. In his new position he will work closely with Chris Harvey, DTTL's global lead for the financial services industry.
Deloitte already has a well-established presence in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and in the next few years, O'Brien wants to see Deloitte expand in parts of Latin America and Asia. In particular, he expects the firm to get more active in Mexico, due to that country's recent decision to allow the establishment of real estate investment trusts. Fibra Uno Administracion SA, Mexico's first REIT, had its first IPO in March 2011.
And although Deloitte is well-established in major Asian countries like China and India, O'Brien said they now see real opportunities in markets such as Vietnam.
In fact, he believes that since the worldwide recession has caused a “flight to quality assets” in many more-developed markets, he expects to see much more activity outside their major cities such as New York, London and Frankfurt.
“We haven't seen a lot of activity in secondary or tertiary markets in Europe,” he said.
O'Brien will somehow have to balance the focus on exploiting opportunities in these smaller, out-of the-way places with continuing and expanding the firm's activity in China and India. O'Brien estimates he has been to China three times in the last five years.
“I've got established relationships with our member firms in both countries,” and personal
relationships are what open the door, especially in China, where O'Brien said they are even more important than in the U.S., “and personal relationships are huge in the U.S. real estate industry.”
This means he'll probably have to keep up an intense travel schedule. “It's very difficult to do [this job] from 6,000 miles away.”
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Brian J. Rogal
Brian J. Rogal is a Chicago-based freelance writer with years of experience as an investigative reporter and editor, most notably at The Chicago Reporter, where he concentrated on housing issues. He also has written extensively on alternative energy and the payments card industry for national trade publications.
