JLL’s Deborah Van Der Heyden, Paul Ferraro Join Cushman & Wakefield
By Celia Young September 22, 2021 12:35 pm
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Two former JLL (JLL) executives — Deborah van der Heyden and Paul Ferraro — joined Cushman & Wakefield (CWK) as executive directors last month, heading up a new tenant representation team in New York City.
The dynamic duo will be based out of the firm’s 1290 Avenue of the Americas office and are joined by another former JLL broker, Matthew Livingston — who the two worked with on deals at JLL — along with former CBRE research analyst Ian O’Mahony.
“Deb and Paul are industry veterans with a proven customer-centric focus and extensive experience advising global occupier clients throughout the corporate real estate lifecycle,” Todd Schwartz, managing principal of C&W’s New York office, said in a statement. “We are thrilled that Deb, Paul, Matt and Ian have chosen to utilize Cushman & Wakefield’s global platform.”
Van der Heyden got started in New York real estate as a young professional in the late 1980s, working for 15 years at Newmark, where she represented a number of then-young tech startups in the city, Commercial Observer reported.
During the 12 years she spent at JLL, she worked on office space projects throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe; negotiated retail deals in New York; advised on bankruptcy filings; and leased warehouse and distribution faculties.
“As a woman who has worked in this industry for over 30 years, I have experienced the culture of the industry at more than one of the leading firms,” van der Heyden said in a statement to CO. “Policies are new, but the day-to-day experience for most women in the industry has not changed. So, I’m excited by the work that C&W is doing in the Tri-State Region to change the old school approach and environment of real estate brokerage firms.”
Ferraro joins the firm after a 15-year career in office, industrial and retail leasing at JLL and USI Real Estate Brokerage Services. Before C&W, he served as a corporate real estate advisor at JLL.
As recently as July, he was closing deals for the brokerage firm — including for talent management platform True, which he helped snag a 17,629-square-foot lease for the entire 16th floor of 441 Ninth Avenue, CO reported.
“These are complicated times for businesses and our clients are looking for support that simplifies their decision making,” Ferraro said in a statement to CO. “C&W has gone the extra mile to create a fantastic culture and we are ecstatic to be working alongside great people.”
Livingston, who joins C&W as a director, worked with Ferraro and van der Heyden in the past. At JLL, the three partnered up to represent Priceline’s Asia-focused travel site Agoda in a full-floor expansion to the 27,000- square-foot 66th floor of the Empire State Building in 2017, The New York Post reported. He has seven years of experience in real estate, having worked in tenant representation and managing real estate portfolios at JLL.
With six years of experience in real estate, O’Mahony joins Cushman & Wakefield as a senior brokerage specialist, where he will support the tenant representation team. He previously worked as a consulting analyst for the commercial real estate proptech platform CREtech.
Celia Young can be reached at cyoung@commercialobserver.com.
