Lee & Assoc. Nabs Former C&W Western President

LOS ANGELES—Joe M. Vargas has joined Lee & Associates as a national advisor to help the firm carry out its national expansion plans. A 30-year veteran, Vargas was formerly the western region president at Cushman & Wakefield, which recently merged with DTZ in a $2 billion deal. In this new role, Vargas will work directly with Lee & Associates CEO Jeff Rinkov to locate expansion markets across the nation.

“I have been in the industry for over 30 years in brokerage and management positions, mostly at Cushman & Wakefield, and I was president of Lee's Los Angeles South Bay office back in 1991. Bill Lee has been a friend and mentor of mine nearly my entire career,” Vargas tells GlobeSt.com. “Lee & Associates is an extremely dynamic and entrepreneurial platform that lends itself to the most creative and the most entrepreneurial professionals in the industry, and that is what pulled me back to the company. Jeff presented an opportunity to me to work in a national advisory capacity, initially to lead expansion on a local, regional and national basis. Our goal is to build the Lee & Associates brand, platform and opportunities.”

Greg Gill, president of Lee's Los Angeles/Long Beach office, has been longtime friends with Vargas, and helped to facilitate the move. “It would be very hard to duplicate the resume and the profile that Joe brings,” says Rinkov. “There is tremendous opportunity in his experience both on the transactional side and on the advisory side. He has a tremendous amount of activity throughout the industry on a national basis. We have a very strict expansion program that we are working toward to increase the exposure and the breadth and strength of our brand. Joe has that breadth of experience, longevity and connectivity that will bring incredible energy to our objectives. It is an incredible fit for us.”

Vargas had previously worked at Cushman & Wakefield for 16 years, where he worked in a number of roles, including expanding the brand's platform, recruiting leading industry professionals and in business development. He has also worked on mergers and acquisitions for the firm. His roster of experience will prove to be beneficial in helping Lee carry out its goals. “My initial goals are to work with Jeff to identify those cities nationally that are priorities and to focus on great opportunities to expand the brand in those cities,” adds Vargas about his initial goals. “Those cities include Boston, Washington DC, Miami, Austin and Salt Lake City. These are cities that create a great net for our professionals.”

In addition to Vargas's lofty real estate career, he also played on the US Olympic Water Polo team in 1980 and 1984, when the team took home a silver medal, and he was inducted into the Water Polo Hall of Fame in 1992. He is a graduate of UCLA and is a member of AIR, NAIOP and LAHQ.