“Today, 15 of the top 20 largest global investment managers are on VTS and more than 5.5 billion square feet of commercial real estate is managed on the platform globally,” says Harvey. “Getting here took a unique set of talent that VTS's leadership team and board members provided. As I join the team, my goal is to help bring VTS to an even larger segment of the market through continued global expansion, accelerated product development and talent recruitment.”

At last month's MIPIM conference in Cannes, France, GlobeSt.com caught up with Romito and chief product officer Brandon Weber—formerly CEO of Hightower—for their thoughts on industry receptiveness to proptech firms such as theirs. “MIPIM this year is embracing proptech in a way that's pretty unprecedented for this conference,” Weber told GlobeSt,.com in March.

He noted that the conference's Innovation Center this year featured no fewer than 10 tech-oriented panel discussions, including one he was on and another in which Romito was a panelist. “Three years ago, there was one panel, and the Innovation Center wasn't even inside the big conference area,” Weber said. “That's reflective of an overall industry embrace of the work we're doing around technology.”

Another big change cited by Romito was “the seniority of people at these firms who are excited to deal with companies like VTS and talk about their digital strategies. Years ago, it was people within the firm”—a property manager or asset manager, for example—“but probably not the ultimate decision maker. Now it's very clear that it's an overall strategy for large companies.”

NEW YORK CITY—Leasing and asset management platform VTS, which merged with Hightower this past November to create a portfolio of some five billion square feet, has brought in two new executives to help manage its rapid growth. Michelle McComb has joined as CFO, while Tim Harvey has come aboard as executive chairman.

“After merging with Hightower, our combined team has the technology and industry expertise we need to drive lasting industry transformation,” says VTS CEO Nick Romito. “Our goal is to create the best-in-industry platform and tackle even bigger customer pain points down the road. To support these ambitions, we're introducing two new executive team members who are experts at growing and managing large teams through a steep growth trajectory. Michelle and Tim are perfectly poised to help VTS scale operational processes and infrastructure, attract talented new team members, continue global expansion and mentor the leadership team along the way.”

Formerly CFO at Datto, McComb joins VTS with proven experience scaling high-growth companies. Previously she was CFO of Bloomberg's Financial Products division, managing mirector at UBS Investment Bank, International CFO at Lucent Technologies and CFO of VitalSigns Software. McComb began her career at EY in Silicon Valley.

For his part, Harvey most recently served as president of commercial solutions at BAE Systems, a leading global defense, aerospace and security company. He joined BAE as a result of the acquisition of SilverSky, a provider of security software and managed services where as CEO he was responsible for the growth and sale of the business to BAE.

“Today, 15 of the top 20 largest global investment managers are on VTS and more than 5.5 billion square feet of commercial real estate is managed on the platform globally,” says Harvey. “Getting here took a unique set of talent that VTS's leadership team and board members provided. As I join the team, my goal is to help bring VTS to an even larger segment of the market through continued global expansion, accelerated product development and talent recruitment.”

At last month's MIPIM conference in Cannes, France, GlobeSt.com caught up with Romito and chief product officer Brandon Weber—formerly CEO of Hightower—for their thoughts on industry receptiveness to proptech firms such as theirs. “MIPIM this year is embracing proptech in a way that's pretty unprecedented for this conference,” Weber told GlobeSt,.com in March.

He noted that the conference's Innovation Center this year featured no fewer than 10 tech-oriented panel discussions, including one he was on and another in which Romito was a panelist. “Three years ago, there was one panel, and the Innovation Center wasn't even inside the big conference area,” Weber said. “That's reflective of an overall industry embrace of the work we're doing around technology.”

Another big change cited by Romito was “the seniority of people at these firms who are excited to deal with companies like VTS and talk about their digital strategies. Years ago, it was people within the firm”—a property manager or asset manager, for example—“but probably not the ultimate decision maker. Now it's very clear that it's an overall strategy for large companies.”