Industry veteran James Maddock is joining Knight Frank from Cushman & Wakefield as a partner in its global occupier strategy and solutions team.
Maddock, who has more than 35 years’ experience in corporate real estate and occupier advisory, will join the business on 19 January.
He started his career at DTZ in 1990 and joined the European board of Cushman & Wakefield following the firm’s 2015 merger. Maddock most recently served as EMEA head of occupier services, where he was responsible for building and scaling the EMEA occupier services platform.
In his new role, he will be based in London and will work closely alongside Tim Armstrong, global head of occupier strategy and solutions, and senior regional leadership, including Philipp Ueberschaer, head of occupier strategy and solutions – EMEA, and Richard Proctor, head of occupier strategy and solutions – UK, joining the global occupier board.
William Beardmore-Gray, senior partner and group chair of Knight Frank, said: “James is a highly respected industry leader with an unparalleled network and depth of occupier expertise. His appointment underscores our long term commitment to building a market leading global occupier platform, which we see as a critical growth engine as occupier requirements become more complex, global and strategically driven.”
Armstrong added: “As occupier requirements become increasingly sophisticated, this is the ideal moment to strengthen our global leadership team. James brings 35 years of outstanding experience and an exceptional track record, and his arrival further enhances our ability to deliver innovative and integrated solutions for clients. Leveraging data and AI will be fundamental to these solutions – enabling smarter insights, predictive analytics and automation that transform occupier strategies. Working closely with our regional leaders, he will play a pivotal role in accelerating growth and transforming how occupiers extract value from their real estate and workplaces.”
Tim Robinson, head of UK commercial at Knight Frank, said: “Growing the UK occupier platform is fundamental to our UK and European strategies and one of our commercial ‘accelerators’ – areas of our business that are targeted for significant investment by the firm. James will be a major asset to our occupier focused business, strengthening our ability to deliver a truly best-in-class service to clients across the UK, mainland Europe and, ultimately, globally.”
Maddock added: “I am delighted to be joining Knight Frank’s world class team at such a pivotal moment for the occupier market. The firm’s partnership culture and commitment to collaboration strongly resonate with me. I look forward to working across the UK, Europe and global platform to enhance client experience, deliver meaningful outcomes and support the continued growth of the business in an increasingly complex environment.”
