Mitchell Rudin Replacing Michael Colacino as Savills Studley President

NEW YORK CITY—Savills Studley has appointed Mitchell E. Rudin to serve as its next president. Michael Colacino will be stepping down at the end of 2018.

In June, Rudin left Mack-Cali Realty Corporation, after approximately three years serving as vice chair and CEO. He begins at Savills Studley on October 1 and will become president on Jan. 1, 2019.

Colacino joined Julien J. Studley, Inc. in 1999. Since 2002, he has been the president, after he and Mitch Steir led the management buyout of the firm from Julien Studley. At that time, Steir became the chairman and CEO. Studley had founded the firm in 1954. He was a refugee from Europe, escaping World War II.

Steir and Colacino worked on the $260 million acquisition of the firm by the London-based brokerage, Savills, in 2014. This resulted in the advisory firm’s name change to Savills Studley. Together they oversaw the opening of new offices throughout the US and in Canada and the expanding of existing offices, including in New York which has more than doubled in size.

Colacino, who was a systems designer for the first 10 years of his career, plans to create a proptech software company. “I’ve spent the last 30 years advocating for the application of software and analytics to real estate,” he says. “It is exciting to see those ideas acquiring enormous momentum in the industry. I am eager to combine my background in software with my experience managing broker operations to change and improve our industry.”

Steir commented that he has worked with Colacino by his side for nearly three decades. He thanked him for the success and growth of the company, wishing him the best in his future endeavors.

Expressing confidence in what Rudin will bring to Savills Studley, Steir says “Mitch has expertly guided some of the country’s leading real estate service and development firms through periods of rapid growth and dramatic transformation.”

In June 2015, the Wall Street Journal noted Rudin along with Michael DeMarco, president at Mack-Cali, took “the reins of one of the country’s worst-performing real-estate investment trusts.” Savills praises Rudin’s work as transitioning the Mack-Cali portfolio from troubled suburban offices to a mix of office and multi-family properties situated along the New Jersey waterfront and in transit-rich locations. Rudin was the CEO and president of US commercial operations at Brookfield Office Properties from 2011 through 2014. Previously, he rose to become the NY tri-state region CEO and president at CBRE.

Rudin says he looks forward to joining Savills Studley noting “over the years, the firm has invested heavily in forward-thinking technology and has strengthened its professional teams both in the C-suite and across the country.”