Berkadia Hires C&W’s Blake Okland as Chief Revenue Officer

Blake Okland, who led Cushman & Wakefield’s multifamily capital markets platform from December 2023 to early 2026, has joined Berkadia as the firm’s chief revenue officer, Commercial Observer can first report. 

Okland’s tenure at  Berkadia began this spring in a role focused on driving growth within the brokerage’s investment sales and mortgage banking platforms and working under Hilary Provinse, executive vice president of capital markets. He said the opportunity to team up with Provinse coupled with working in the multifamily sector with versatile capital markets offerings spurred his decision to ultimately join the 17-year-old firm. 

“One of our strengths is playing the long game, and in our business that is very important,” Okland told CO. “‘On the one hand you have a long-term view, and on the other hand you have the ability to be spontaneous and pivot because our market and our world is super dynamic, so I viewed those all as distinct advantages for the platform.”

Okland, who is based in Charlotte, N.C., was previously appointed president of C&W’s multifamily capital markets in late 2023 while simultaneously serving as chief revenue officer at Greystone as part of the two firms’ strategic joint equity, debt and structured financing partnership. He also had a nearly two-decade run from 2004 to 2022 with Apartment Realty Advisors, which Newmark acquired in 2014.

Provinse said Okland’s deep experience built up largely on the investment sales side of the brokerage business and her more capital markets background will complement each other well as they look to more fully integrate the two units.

“It’s no longer a siloed business as our clients want advisory support both as they sell and market properties as well as when they finance, structure or recap properties,” Provinse said. “Berkadia is at the point where we had invested a lot in people and capabilities, both in debt and sales. So with our ability to tie those together under Blake’s leadership, the timing was perfect.”

Berkadia executed nearly $35 billion of debt originations in 2025, up from $10.5 billion recorded in 2013, according to the brokerage. Its investment sales business has also displayed growth with roughly $16 billion registered in 2025 compared to $4.1 billion in 2013. 

In addition to focusing on origination and investment sales growth in the U.S., Okland said he will also be focused on expanding Berkadia’s international partnership with Knight Frank, formed in early 2023. Okland fittingly worked closely with another globally branded partnership with Knight Frank while at Newmark, and he sees big opportunities to scale the business due to overseas investors targeting multifamily more.

“Multifamily is the largest asset class in the United States, and it wasn’t pre-COVID so so our main business line is now of greater importance to global capital deployment than ever before,” Okland said. “Whether that’s a super-robust pipeline right now or not is immaterial. The importance of having the infrastructure and making sure that it’s vibrant and active, that’s a permanent need.”

Andrew Coen can be reached at acoen@commercialobserver.com.