BrazilJLL appoints John Fekete as consulting head for Middle East & North Africa
Global real estate advisory and professional services firm JLL have appointed John Fekete as Head of Consulting Services for the Middle East and Africa.
Fekete, who has over 25 years of experience working with leading organisations across the globe, will be tasked with expanding JLL’s business in the Middle Eastern and African regions with a focus on strategic consulting, along with developing the firm’s lines in hotel, retail and corporate consulting services.
JLL’s CEO for the Middle East and Africa, Thierry Delvaux, said of the appointment: “John is a valuable addition to our growing leadership team across the MENA region. He brings unparalleled regional and global consulting intelligence which further strengthens our consulting capabilities and demonstrates our ongoing commitment to evolving our client services to respond to the fast changing market dynamics.”
As an experienced operator in valuation advisory, strategic consulting, project management and landlord and tenant representation, the US-born Fekete has been based in the Middle East for close to decade, most recently as the head of the Global Real Estate Management Division at the Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) in the UAE’s second largest city.
Prior to the three-and-a-half-year stint with ADIB, Fekete spent nearly seven years with Citi in Dubai, before which he was the Vice President for the real estate line of the financial services firm in Moscow – overseeing operations in Central and Eastern Europe. Originally, Fekete served with JLL rival firm Colliers International for six years as a Managing Director in Hungary – with further MD roles in Romania and the Ukraine – before switching to JLL’s Budapest office for his first stint with the firm in 1998.
While at ADIB, Fekete was also a member of the bank’s Committee for Sustainability and Social Responsibility, and in addition is a member of Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors – the world’s foremost professional body for qualifications and standards in land, property, infrastructure and construction. In his earlier capacity as head of EMEA for Citigroup, Fekete was responsible for the real estate transactions and project and facility management of 500+ locations with an annual operating budget of over $500 million.
Fekete will now oversee the consulting services line for a firm which has over 600 internationally qualified professionals across offices in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Jeddah and Al Khobar, in addition to locations in Cairo and further afield in Casablanca, Johannesburg, Lagos and Nairobi. Altogether, JLL has some 80,000 plus staff worldwide, spread across almost 300 international offices – pulling in global revenues closing on $8 billion last year.
In other recent industry news, the UK advisory Savills has taken oven Cluttons Middle East business.
