Real Estate Regional Director, APAC

The purpose of the Regional Director is to act as the customer relationship manager, single point of contact and subject matter expert for the delivery of all GCRE functions in your region and with stakeholders in your assigned business units in partnering with the GCRE Center of Excellence (GCRE CoE) and Regional Business leadership.

In this role, you are responsible for the operation, maintenance and management of the portfolio of properties within your assigned region and business units. You will build strong partnerships with real estate colleagues, corporate teams, client-facing external and outsourced professionals and leadership. You will establish an effective stakeholder engagement approach that includes support functions (Finance, HR, Legal, Technology, and business segment leadership to understand the range of requests and requirements, to gain alignment, and to update stakeholders on project delivery.

The successful candidate is an inspirational leader who builds strong networks, is comfortable with outsourced service providers, and can maneuver through competing priorities applying a rigorous attention to detail without losing sight of overarching objectives.

Major Duties & Responsibilities

• Build and maintain close working relationships with business leaders and regional / country executive management to ensure the Global Corporate Real Estate (GCRE) plan is aligned with top-level business drivers and initiatives.
• Partner with the GCRE CoE, Business Units, Finance and Legal to craft transaction and project strategies for implementation by the GCRE CoE.
• Develop location and site strategies in partnership with the GCRE CoE that support business objectives (., potential site consolidations, use of co-working space, front / back office splits, .
• Coordinate with GCRE CoE, in-region real estate team members and key service providers and vendors to provide efficient, quality corporate real estate services (transaction management, lease administration, project management, facilities management, portfolio strategy, office administration and similar services) and solutions representing best-in-class practices and costs below benchmarked levels for our industry.
• Provide regular on-the-ground guidance and direction to outsourced facilities management leadership.
• Act as escalation point for real estate issues within assigned region and business units.
• Support implementation of GCRE policies & standards that lead to more effective asset utilization, improved service performance and reduction of total real estate costs.
• Work with the GCRE CoE to drive transparency in real estate decision-making and costs for business unit and regional leaders around key real estate metrics which support business objectives.
• Support coordination of Global Security policies and risk assessments in the region.
• Manage stage-gated decision framework for transactions and projects in concert with GCRE CoE’s tactical delivery of real estate services.
• Manage the annual operating budget for the sites in region with focus on targeted savings initiatives.
• Support Portfolio and Workplace teams in shaping overarching real estate strategy and conforming local projects to it.
• Act as the primary liaison to our landlords within your region.
• Provide regular and insightful reporting to key stakeholder and GCRE leadership.
• Communicate on and effectively manage risks as they arise.
• Ability to conduct high-level creative thinking and strategic visioning
• Ability to structure problems, develop an analytical approach for solutions and lead efforts to drive insights and synthesize findings into actionable recommendations
• Ability to work effectively as a member of a multi-disciplinary real estate team
• Ability to build and deliver compelling presentations
• Ability to effectively communicate findings and recommendations to senior executives and influence the enterprise to act appropriately to capture the value in such findings.
• Extraordinary written and oral communications skills
• Resiliency and humor
• 10+ years in corporate or commercial real estate with specific experience in areas of transactions, facility management and project management – direct experience in two of the three areas, broader exposure and responsibility required for third.
• 10+ years managing a team of independent contributors
• Expertise in occupier and investor real estate financial modeling required, with direct knowledge of US GAAP lease accounting
• P&L acumen with a clear understanding of how to convert real estate needs into positive P&L outcomes
• Bachelors degree or equivalent experience, MBA preferred
• Expertise in Microsoft Office, specifically Excel and PowerPoint
• Travel at 10-20%