Skip to main content Skip to footer

Chris McLernon to lead global real estate services reporting to Jay Hennick

1532 x 1040 Chris McLernon Global CEO

Davoud Amel-Azizpour named CEO of EMEA Region

TORONTO, CANADA, April 25 2022 – Leading global professional services and investment management firm Colliers today announced the appointment of Chris McLernon as Chief Executive Officer of Real Estate Services| Global. McLernon will be based in the firm’s global headquarters in Toronto, reporting to Global Chairman & CEO Jay Hennick. Davoud Amel-Azizpour, currently Chief Financial Officer of EMEA, will succeed McLernon as CEO of the EMEA region. Both appointments, which are effective July 1, 2022, reinforce Colliers’ continued leadership in the industry and commitment to accelerate the success of its people and clients.

 Chris McLernon hw300

   Chris McLernon       

 Amel Azizpour Davoud wh300

  Davoud Amel-Azizpour

McLernon will focus on overall growth, operational excellence, and client relationships within Colliers’ rapidly growing real estate services operations. He will have direct oversight of Colliers’ Capital Markets, Leasing and Outsourcing & Advisory businesses globally, with emphasis on accelerating growth, enhancing global collaboration, and strengthening our unique culture and way of doing business.

McLernon brings a wealth of experience growing Colliers’ businesses and has played an important role in building the Colliers brand into the leading global player it is today. Since joining the company in 1987, his enterprising spirit earned him increasingly senior positions culminating in his role of CEO of EMEA.

“Chris’ appointment reflects the success of his longstanding career with Colliers. Over the past 14 years as EMEA’s leader, Chris was instrumental in growing the region from $30 million to over $700 million in revenues while delivering exceptional client results, creating a great culture for our professionals, and driving operational excellence. With Chris’ experience, commitment, and track record as a leader, we are even better positioned to achieve our ambitious 2025 growth plan,” said Hennick.

Amel-Azizpour has extensive real estate experience, having worked closely with McLernon over the past nine years at Colliers, most recently as the CFO of EMEA. Amel-Azizpour is a trusted partner within the broader regional leadership team, with both the intimate knowledge of EMEA’s operations and strategic vision to advance Colliers’ position.

“Dav’s well-established reputation, deep understanding of our EMEA business, and his embodiment of Colliers’ unique culture makes him a natural fit to succeed Chris. I am confident he will excel in his new role and continue to drive growth and profitability throughout our EMEA business during this dynamic time,” continued Hennick. “Chris and Dav are both strategic, results-oriented leaders whose contributions to Colliers over many years make them ideal candidates to fulfill their new roles. I am extremely proud of both and excited to watch as they continue enhance the scale and reputation of our company in the years to come,” he concluded. 


Related Experts
United Kingdom

Anna Silkstone

Head of Content

London - West End

Anna is an experienced B2B marketer, communications and business development adviser. She specialises in content creation and the resultant campaign output. In her role as Head of Content, EMEA she develops compelling communications for multi-channel direct and social marketing, media and internal communications. This is done in partnership with the business line leaders, research, digital and creative leads.

Anna has developed all of her career experience in the real estate industry. This has included leading on market response campaigns, thought leadership content development, research report identification, production and launch, client engagement and market profiling campaigns, proposal responses and bid presentation management, value propositions for marketing material, trade show presence, stakeholder management, internal and external communications, and building a remote-working marketing team. 

Prior to Colliers Anna worked at the global law firm, Dentons LLP as a Senior Business Development Manager for the Real Estate team and latterly as Head of Campaigns for the UKIME region, focusing on Environmental, Social and Governance. Anna also worked at CBRE for over two years and supported the Occupier Services section of the EMEA business. Before CBRE, Anna was at Lambert Smith Hampton for nearly nine years in a regional marketing role and later as a UK campaign manager. 

View expert
United Kingdom

Chris McLernon

Chief Executive Officer, Real Estate Services | Global

As Chief Executive Officer, Real Estate Services | Global, Chris takes responsibility for client relationships, operational excellence, and overall growth within Colliers’ rapidly growing real estate services across 62 countries. He oversees Colliers’ Capital Markets, Leasing and Outsourcing & Advisory businesses globally, with emphasis on accelerating growth, enhancing global collaboration, and strengthening our unique culture and way of doing business.  

Bringing a depth of experience in building and growing businesses in mature and emerging markets, Chris has played an integral role in growing Colliers into its current position. Previously the Chief Executive Officer for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Chris provided strategic direction for the region, ensuring a seamless service experience for clients across our complete range of services, and grew its revenues 20-fold. He oversaw more than 30 acquisitions including Colliers UK, Colliers Germany, Colliers Italy, Antirion, IREA, Sadline & Albaek, Ovenia and The AOS Group from France. Earlier, he built and led Colliers’ Latin America business and was one of the top producers in Canada when he joined Colliers in 1987 as an office leasing advisor in Toronto.

Throughout his career, Chris has delivered exceptional service, fulfilling the real estate needs of major corporations such as Nortel, FedEx, Oracle, Cisco Systems, Compaq, Dun & Bradstreet, Ford Motor Land, and Microsoft.

View expert
United Kingdom

Davoud Amel-Azizpour

Chief Executive Officer EMEA

EMEA Headquarters, London

As Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for the EMEA region (Europe, Middle East and Africa), Davoud is responsible for establishing and leading the strategic direction and delivering business expansion through the fulfilment of our Enterprise ’25 growth strategy. Davoud joined Colliers in an Executive Board role in 2012 holding the position of Head of EMEA Finance and Corporate Development. In 2017 he became Chief Financial Officer for the region, before becoming the CEO for EMEA in 2022.

Focused on delivering the bold targets set in the five-year Enterprise ’25 growth strategy, Davoud supports organic growth through the EMEA expert country leadership team, business line expansion, particularly in Capital Markets, Property Management, and Occupier Services, and strategic acquisitions that enable the EMEA region to build at scale. Notable examples in the first six months of 2022 include:

·       The acquisition of Colliers Italy. Previously an affiliated full-service commercial real estate firm, and Antirion SGR S.p.A., one of the largest real estate investment management firms in Italy. Read more here

·       The expansion of Colliers’ Iberian Peninsula offering with the opening of a Portuguese office in Lisbon. Read more here

·       The strategic partnership agreement with Paragon, one of the UK’s largest independent building and project consultancies. Read more here

Before Colliers, Davoud began his career at KPMG and then moved to FTSE 100 listed Group Reed Elsevier plc.  Davoud also spent time working in the UK business of DTZ.

View expert