Avison Young now has nine offices in the UK and Germany, and plans on opening additional ones in many European cities, especially ones that will give it access to East European markets. Other priorities include India, China, other countries in East Asia, and Latin America, where new offices will bolster the company's existing operations in Mexico City. But the expansion won't be too hasty.

“We are looking at a five-year time horizon,” Thakar says. But opening a new office in a new city does not necessarily follow a rigid timetable. What's far more important is finding high-performing groups that also match the company's ethical standards and can mesh with its corporate culture.

“We're in no rush,” he adds. ”We're a principal-led company,” and what governs the rate of expansion is finding compatible partners in the cities where it wants to grow. The company is currently involved in about a dozen serious conversations with potential partners from around the world, and “we're constantly looking at and fielding calls from many markets.”

“Sometimes we find good partners and move forward early,” he says. Avison Young recently, for example, opened earlier than it expected an office in Romania, an important foothold in Eastern Europe.

One of his chief tasks will be to evaluate the best practices that exist in every country, and ensure their use throughout Avison Young as it expands. “In that sense, it is truly one company.”

CHICAGO, TORONTO—Avison Young continues to expand across the globe, and has just promoted a Chicago-based principal to help run that effort. Effective immediately, Hiren Thakar, becomes chief operating officer of international operations. In this new role, he will oversee operations in Europe, Mexico and future locations outside the US and Canada.

Thakar joined Avison Young in 2008 as senior vice-president of corporate strategy. And over the past nine years, the company has grown from 11 to 80 offices and from 300 to more than 2,400 real estate professionals across North America and Europe. Thakar says that a transformation in the real estate world has made it vital that this growth continue.

“The real estate community in general has gotten more international over the last decade,” he tells GlobeSt.com. “Many of our clients are going global, and that means we have to be global as well.” The Toronto-based company first began to expand by opening offices across Canada, then began moving into the US, and now has set a goal of being in all of the world's core real estate markets.

“We're never going to be in every city in every part of the world,” Thankar says. But there are 10 to 12 markets that are a must for any real estate company that wants to be global. “Our clients expect us to be there.”

Avison Young now has nine offices in the UK and Germany, and plans on opening additional ones in many European cities, especially ones that will give it access to East European markets. Other priorities include India, China, other countries in East Asia, and Latin America, where new offices will bolster the company's existing operations in Mexico City. But the expansion won't be too hasty.

“We are looking at a five-year time horizon,” Thakar says. But opening a new office in a new city does not necessarily follow a rigid timetable. What's far more important is finding high-performing groups that also match the company's ethical standards and can mesh with its corporate culture.

“We're in no rush,” he adds. ”We're a principal-led company,” and what governs the rate of expansion is finding compatible partners in the cities where it wants to grow. The company is currently involved in about a dozen serious conversations with potential partners from around the world, and “we're constantly looking at and fielding calls from many markets.”

“Sometimes we find good partners and move forward early,” he says. Avison Young recently, for example, opened earlier than it expected an office in Romania, an important foothold in Eastern Europe.

One of his chief tasks will be to evaluate the best practices that exist in every country, and ensure their use throughout Avison Young as it expands. “In that sense, it is truly one company.”