DALLAS-With an ownership option in real estate as part of the bait, Colliers International Inc. has lured a 30-year veteran and highly respected powerbroker from a competitor's camp after long-time courtship. Effective Aug. 7, Thomas O. Pearson will be the team's newest executive vice president.
Pearson is vacating a senior director's seat with Dallas-based Cushman & Wakefield of Texas Inc., where his last year's volume hit $66 million in industrial investment sales, land deals and leases. "We wish Tom all the best in his future endeavors and appreciate all that he did at Cushman & Wakefield during his 8.5 years with the company," Liz Trocchio, C&W's executive managing director and Texas area leader, says in a prepared statement.
Pearson tells GlobeSt.com that he expects to close out his C&W deals in 90 days, but stresses that he's definitely toting his black book and on the hunt for new business under the Colliers' flag. "In my career, there've been just a few moves and every one has been a strategic move at the right time in my career," he says. "I consider this to be the right move for me at this time." The C&W break won't be the easiest to make, particularly since he's going out solo with his long-time partner, Lizzy Pappachen-Blake, staying put.
"You don't leave a company like that in one sleepless night," Pearson says. "Cushman & Wakefield was very, very gracious to me. There was disappointment, but Liz {Trocchio} couldn't have been nicer to me."
Toasting the coup is Colliers' managing director Mark Noble, who's been courting Pearson practically since he took over in January 2004 as part of a plan to become one of the region's top two brokerage houses before the fifth anniversary is marked. He and Pearson concur that the high number of SIORs in the firm's rank and file and the ownership option that goes along with the Colliers' platform were the dealmakers. "Brokers are allowed to own individual properties, but they are encouraged to invest in real estate through the Colliers Real Estate Investment Fund," Noble explains.
"We worked throught this over a long period of time to get everything arranged just right," Noble continues. "It's wonderful to have a guy like Tom come in who's well-respected and a great producer."
Pearson, a Stemmons Services Award winner, will be Colliers' seventh EVP in Dallas, coming on board to share the industrial turf with Allen Gump. The office also has two retail EVPs and three in the office group.
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