CBRE Property Management Hires Michael Robson as Global President

CBRE Property Management, one of brokerage firm CBRE’s service lines, has hired Michael Robson as its new global president, Commercial Observer has learned.

Robson joins CBRE from KKR, where he was most recently managing director and co-head of KKR Capstone, the company’s global operations team, in charge of its Asia division. He also worked as managing director for KKR’s Australia and New Zealand division. A KKR spokesperson confirmed Robson will relocate to the U.S. and said the firm “wishes him well.”

In his new role at CBRE, Robson will be responsible for the “continued elevation of property management” for CBRE’s portfolio and will focus on using technology and artificial intelligence to automate building engineering components, according to Jamie Hodari, CEO of CBRE’s Buildings Operations & Experience (BOE) business segment and chief commercial officer at CBRE.

“[Michael] really understands not just hard-core operations, but front of house and how you deliver a great experience, which I think the property management world is kind of starving for right now,” Hodari told CO.

Robson will work under Hodari in his new position and replace Emma Buckland, who was moved in the fall into a position as executive group president and chief operating officer for CBRE’s BOE segment.

CBRE’s property management division oversees roughly 3.7 billion square feet of property globally and has nearly 21,000 buildings under management, making it the “biggest property management business in the world,” according to Hodari. In addition, the division has 18,504 employees across the globe and serves 4,300 clients in 42 countries.

“This is a tremendous business, and we have a really great responsibility to safeguard and optimize the performance of 4,300 really important clients around the world,” Robson said. “It’s a heavy responsibility, and one that I’m really excited to tackle.”

As part of his new role — which he started last month — Robson said he will focus on giving CBRE’s clients the best partners, experience and technology to drive financial results. He will also help handle management operations for Industrious, a coworking firm founded by Hodari that now acts as an anchor for CBRE’s BOE segment following CBRE’s $400 million acquisition of Industrious in January 2025. Hodari is also CEO of Industrious.

Robson is already familiar with Industrious, as he was chief operating officer at the coworking firm for roughly five years before heading over to KKR in 2020, according to his LinkedIn page.

“What Jamie built at Industrious, and what the team there have been doing, is about bringing a hotel-level sophistication to drive tenant experience,” Robson said. “Many of our landlord customers want that sort of scientific and sophisticated approach to delivering the fit-for-purpose experience in their buildings, and Industrious does that better than anyone I’ve seen in this industry.”

Speaking of Industrious, Hodari mentioned the firm is looking for a new CEO as he transitions away from the company to focus more on his new senior leadership role at CBRE.

Isabelle Durso can be reached at idurso@commercialobserver.com.