CBRE, an LA-based commercial real estate services and investment firm, has appointed Tim Dismond as its chief diversity officer and Chandra Dhandapani as its chief administrative officer.
In the newly created role, Dismond will oversee the diversity & inclusion (D&I) team and will report to CEO Bob Sulentic. He will also join CBRE’s executive committee, which consists of 12 global executives who drive the company’s worldwide strategy.
Dismond has 25 years of experience in commercial real estate, spending the last 11 years at CBRE. He currently serves as division president of the global workplace solutions (GWS) enterprise business, overseeing more than 5,000 professionals who deliver real estate and facilities services to occupiers in nine US states and Latin America.
Prior to joining CBRE, Dismond was a director at Sprint Nextel and a senior real estate attorney at law firm Polsinelli & Shughart. He holds a JD from the Indiana University School of Law and a BA from the University of Michigan.
“Tim is a very impactful operating executive who has a deep understanding of our business. He will add energy, focus and sharp thinking to our diversity and inclusion efforts,” said Sulentic. “The creation of the Chief Diversity Officer role is a major step in accelerating our progress, particularly in senior leadership and brokerage positions.”
The company has been recognized by publications such as Forbes and Bloomberg for its leadership on D&I initiatives, which includes mandating a visibly diverse candidate for in-person interviews at director-level and above, as well as D&I-focused objectives on performance appraisals for roles director-level and above. CBRE also maintains recruitment partnerships with HBCUConnect (Historically Black Colleges & Universities) and the National Black MBA Association.
CBRE also announced that Chandra Dhandapani, a member of the executive committee and chief digital & technology officer, has been promoted to chief administrative officer. In the role, she will oversee human resources, marketing and research, and digital & technology, which Dhandapani has led since 2016.
She previously spent 17 years at Capital One, joining the bank in 1998 as a director of IT and rising to the role of chief information officer and digital transformation leader for the financial services division.
Dhandapani holds an MBA from The University of Texas at Arlington, an MBA from IRMA in India, and a BS from Stella Maris College in India.
“Chandra has significantly elevated our technology offering, while building a high-performing team,” said Sulentic. “We look forward to Chandra driving similar strategic gains with our People, Marketing and Research functions.”
Force majeure
The Covid-19 pandemic has had a uniquely devastating impact on particular sectors of the economy, such as hospitality and restaurants, travel, and commercial real estate. The shift to remote work has many companies reassessing whether their costly downtown office leases are worth keeping, even in the event that some vaccine or treatment arrives in 2021.
CBRE’s stock price dropped from a peak of $64.25 on February 10 to a low of $29.83 on March 23. Since then the company’s stock has rebounded to $45.22, as of June 30.