LOS ANGELES—CBRE has named Spencer Levy as Americas head of research. Levy has been with CBRE for seven years, and formerly served as executive managing director in the firm's capital markets group. In his new role, he will oversee market analysis and deliver vital information to the company's internal professionals and clients.

“Research is our primary tool for being an advisor to our clients,” Levy tells GlobeSt.com. “By bringing in somebody like myself who has been in this advisory role and has a client-centric point of view, we think it brings together the best of both worlds: great advice with knowledge of our clients and what they are looking to achieve. I think it is a perfect extension of what I have done, and I am really excited about the opportunity.”

Since joining CBRE, Levy has served in leadership roles, always willing to take on more and more responsibilities. He joined the firm initially to lead the eastern division of the capital markets group, eventually working his way to executive managing director, where he oversaw the group's advisory, auction and Latin American operations.

Levy's seasoned career extends beyond his achievements at CBRE. Prior to joining the firm in 2007, he was a principal at Stifel Nicolaus, an investment banking institution. While there, he aided in the M&A IPO and private capital raising.  His resume also includes serving as assistant general counsel at Witkoff Group and as an attorney at the firms Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson and Jones Day Reavis & Pogue.

Levy plans to leverage his experience working in several sectors of the real estate space to continue to grow CBRE's research group, saying that he is “here to take a great thing to the next level,” and noting that he has been very lucky to have worked directly with the research group for the past seven years. “My goal is to make research an integral part of our client advisory services,” says Levy. “I want to integrate research within the broader CBRE organization; I want to integrate it into the mindset of our clients so that it raises the bar for the whole organization to get us closer to our goal in everything that we do, which is to be world class.”

CBRE has had some major employment news this year, including the retirement of chief economist and global chairman of research, Raymond Torto. After being with the firm for 30 years, Torto retired on July 31. He plans to teach real estate and urban planning courses at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in his retirement.