Mike Lafitte is CBRE's
new global president,
CBRE services

LOS ANGELES –CBRE has been busy lately and this in-house activity was demonstrated today with a slew of major appointments. At the top comes the news that Mike Lafitte has been named the firm’s global president, services, moving from his role as president, Americas here. According to a CBRE statement, in this new role, Lafitte will assume executive responsibility for all aspects of CBRE’s service-company operations globally, including the Americas, EMEA, Asia Pacific and Global Corporate Services. In his previous role, Lafitte oversaw the company’s largest business segment, with more than $3 billion of annual revenue and more than 20,000 employees.

Stepping into his shoes is Cal Frese who becomes CEO, Americas, and will take over the same volume of revenue and staff as that which Lafitte managed. CBRE states that Frese has significant company experience, serving as the chief operating officer and then as president of the Americas region. He held this role for several years, and then went on to take up other leadership roles in CBRE’s global organization from 2009 onwards.

On the administrative side, CBRE has named Chris Kirk chief administrative officer. Kirk comes to this role from his position as global director, human resources. Kirk will assume executive responsibility for key Shared Services functions, including Sourcing & Procurement, Information Technology, Corporate Communications, Program Management Office, Human Resources & Workplace Strategy and Global Research. In his previous post, Kirk oversaw the operations and provided strategic insight for employee relations, staffing and recruitment, training and professional development, diversity, compensation and benefits. 

Finally, Laura O’Brien takes on the role Kirk vacated of global director of human resources and workplace strategy – the latter part of her title is as new as her position. CBRE says that she will oversee the company’s human resources operations across the globe, and this means that she will be responsible for 34,000 employees. Among her duties, O’Brien will take charge of employee relations, staffing and recruitment, training and professional development, diversity, compensation and benefits. Further, the company reveals, she will be responsible for Global Facilities, including CBRE’s Workplace Strategy initiative. O’Brien comes to this position having served as the senior vice president, Global Facilities and Special Projects.