CushWake poaches three-person business development team from CBRE

Cushman & Wakefield does not appear to be slowing its Los Angeles poaching spree. The brokerage just hired the development team of Amy Dittoe, Chelsea Gribble, and Jackie Klein out of CBRE, sources informed The Real Deal.

The portfolio solutions specialists will join Henry Johnson, Mike Scimo, Trudy Slepcevic and Andrew Tashjian on the list of seven people that Cushman’s L.A. office lured away from CBRE over the last 6 months.

The team will operate out of Cushman & Wakefield’s Downtown Los Angeles office. As business development director, Dittoe’s work involves creating strategies for Cushman to acquire new business, from multi-location corporate accounts to headquarters relocation. Gribble, as business development design director, creates the visual side of those strategies. Klein is the team’s business development manager. Once the team secures business, it goes to the brokers, Dittoe said.

Cushman approached the trio as a team, not individually, Dittoe told TRD.

“The three of us have complimentary skill sets and really like each other, so we have a strong culture within our team. [Cushman] valued us as a unit, which was a dream for us,” she said. “It was like, three or none.”

Dittoe said the team made the decision to accept the offer because it saw Cushman and Wakefield as a more entrepreneurial environment than CBRE, a sentiment that echoes those of others who have jumped over post-merger.

“The fact that Cushman & Wakefield came to us listening rather than talking and asking us what we do well, that was important, because we see ourselves building something from the ground up,” she said. “Cushman is in a period of figuring out who we are and how we can be better, which is great for us, because we get to take leadership. [The job offer] was an incredible opportunity to grow and where we could see ourselves making more of an impact.”

Dittoe, who joined the real estate world four years ago, said part of her team’s identity is that they aren’t industry insiders.

“We get to be the voice of ‘what does it all mean?’ in simple terms, so we help to simplify the message,” she said. “We can play devil’s advocate with things [real estate professionals] talk about a million times a day. We can be like, ‘why?’ So we use that inexperience as a plus.”

Cushman & Wakefield is not solely hiring out of CBRE. The firm also recently poached retail broker Steve Algermissen back from Colliers, as well as father-and-son brokers Michael Condon Sr. and Michael Condon Jr. from JLL.