CBRE names new S-E Asia chief executive

Pauline Goh will continue in her current role as managing director for Singapore

CB Richard Ellis (CBRE) has named Pauline Goh its chief executive for South-east Asia from July 1.

Ms Goh, 51, will also continue in her current role as managing director for Singapore.

CBRE's managing directors for Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia and the Philippines will now report to her.

Market watchers say her promotion to South-east Asia chief will allow Asia president and chief executive Chris Brooke to focus more on developing business in China, where CBRE has opened a string of offices in the past two years.

Mr Brooke said yesterday: 'As part of our ongoing strategy in Asia, we are looking to develop our business in Singapore into a hub operation to support our activities throughout Southeast Asia. In line with this strategy, within her newly expanded role, Pauline will adopt overall responsibility for our business activities in both Singapore and the remainder of South-east Asia.'

Ms Goh said: 'We are operating in a very challenging and exciting environment in Asia. The South-east Asian markets present a significant opportunity for CB Richard Ellis and we are looking both to grow the traditional components of our business as well as develop enhanced and expanded capabilities to meet the increasingly sophisticated needs of our clients.

'At the same time, we are committed to protecting our market leadership in Singapore in relation to the mature lines of business - commercial leasing, investment sales, residential sales and leasing, valuation and advisory services and property management.'

Ms Goh, who is married and has four teenaged children, holds a BSc in estate management from National University of Singapore. She joined CBRE in 1983 as an executive in its industrial and commercial marketing department.

Two years later, she moved to the commercial leasing team and built up a team of top professional negotiators. In 1993 she took over the management of the residential department, before being appointed managing director of the Singapore office in 2005.

CBRE said yesterday that under her stewardship, the Singapore office has performed to a consistently high standard, achieving strong revenue and high profit margins on a regular basis, as well as a leadership position in the local market.

Over the years, Ms Goh has been directly involved in a number of major property investment deals, many office and residential projects and assignments undertaken by the company, besides helping to manage the business and the people that make it up.

She helped secure the largest independent private property deal so far in Singapore - the sale of Temasek Tower in 2007 for $1.039 billion.

Source: Business Times, 17 Jul 2010