David Burden

As a senior vice president within the Corporate Solutions team, I am focused on tenant representation services in Colliers International’s Chicago office.  I specialize in the optimization of a company's real estate holdings through workplace strategy development and implementation, site selection, property disposition and acquisition, financial analysis and modeling, deal negotiation and construction project management. My clientele and area of focus is primarily in the downtown Chicago marketplace.

I am a leader on a team committed to delivering comprehensive real estate solutions to some of Colliers' most valued customers.

I have been recognized for exceptional service and am just one of  a few professionals nationwide selected to play an active role in a development council that is focused on creating workplace solutions to satisfy the evolving demands of technology, space compression and design preferences while satisfying a wide range of work activities.

My team received the Service Provider of the Year award at the 2015 CoreNet Global REAL Awards, which recognizes exceptional service delivery on a consistent basis while bringing innovative ideas to the table.

I joined the Colliers team in August 2012. My prior work experience involved working as an associate director at Newmark Knight Frank where I specialized in tenant representation and corporate advisory services. While there, I represented a diverse group of clients who provided real estate strategies ranging from acquisitions and dispositions to lease restructures and consolidations.

I previously served as an associate vice president at UGL Equis, where I provided tenant-focused commercial real estate advisory services.

I began my career in construction, where I spent 15 years managing construction of commercial and industrial buildings. After witnessing several projects begin with bad information, unrealistic timelines and cost expectations that didn’t meet the market, I moved into project management to ensure my clients had an industry expert as their advocate. Today, I head Colliers International's project management team in the Midwest.

My experience in design, construction and management of large portfolios of property helps ensure that the total real estate picture is considered in any transaction. My abilities range from strategic occupancy planning, to site analysis and selection, negotiation support, design, construction and move management. I have managed the selection, design and construction of more than 140 million square feet of real estate with total project values exceeding $2 billion. I have managed numerous types of projects including corporate headquarters, public buildings, redevelopment and repositioning of facilities, mission critical facilities, warehouse and industrial development, retail, multi-family, medical office and commercial interiors.     

I work with senior management to understand their business goals and translate those into facility decisions that are completed on time and on budget while meeting the highest quality standards. I am the one constant from the concept through to occupancy and beyond.

Prior to joining Colliers, I founded and built the project management business unit at CB Richard Ellis and Equis. I am one of the pioneers of client oriented project management and help each client ensure they have an expert on their side during any facility project.  

With a bachelor's degree in architecture, I have additional training through the Project Management Institute, Corenet Global and The United States Green Building Council.

Bob Westover serves as senior vice president and an economic incentives practice leader for Colliers International in Chicago. In his role, Bob works across North America to negotiate and secure local and state economic credits and incentives for our clients. 

Prior to joining Colliers, Bob served as senior vice president at CresaPartners LLC.  He joined Cresa in 2016 after spending over 11 years as director of economic development with the State of Illinois Department of Commerce, where his primary responsibilities were in business development, vetting all in-bound economic incentive requests for the legitimacy of each business case and determining the appropriate awards.

Prior to his time with the State of Illinois, he served as a director of corporate development for Steris Corporation, where he led a team in the assessment of potential corporate acquisitions, closing several global deals with a market value of over $500 million. He also worked at A.T. Kearney as an associate in the strategic services group.

With a strong quantitative background, I excel at using data to solve complex business issues. I leverage this skillset in leading the Workforce Analytics consulting practice for the Americas. 

My team provides an integrated approach to people, place and process powered by agile technology and advanced analytics to equip organizations with workforce-related insights to make quantitatively justifiable location-related decisions in labor markets around the world.

Prior to leading the Workforce Analytics team, I was a director on a Chicago-based corporate solutions team where I led a team of developers in developing tools and financial models to help clients address their most complex business challenges. These ranged from fully integrated finacial statement and risk models to landlord vulnerability and business intelligence tools.

Before joinging Colliers in 2015, I spent nearly 4 years working in a variety of roles at Allstate Insurance Company. There I held a number of roles and developed a distinct ability to 1) understand the root cause of the business problem, 2) identify the data required to solve the business problem 3) leverage the technical capabilities of myself and others to analyze the data, synthesisize the finding and communicate with leadership to solve the business problem. 

While at Allstate, I spent time as the lead financial and operational consultant to the Allstate Contact Centers which employ more than 3,000 FTE. In this role I led a redesign of the staffing model to more efficiently match supply (labor hours) and demand (call volume) which drove a double-digit improvement in utilization and improved profitability.

In my time on the agency economics team, I developed a model that identified inefficiencies in the agency compensation system and designed solutions to redistribute capital, helping drive profitable growth for the organization. This project led to a role on a team of 5 charged with a  complete redesign of the company’s $3 billion sales compensation program.

I work as a financial analyst with Colliers’ occupier services team in Chicago, assisting with business development strategies, transaction management services, and market research for major office, industrial, healthcare, and life sciences tenants in the Chicagoland Area.

Previously, I worked in banking as a trade analyst for investment operations helping institutional investors make investment decisions based off of indepth market research. 

I serve as a financial analyst supporting a growing number of Colliers’ top office and industrial clients.  In my role, I specialize in creating and analyzing complex lease, sale, sale leaseback, and investment financials for some of the top annual producers and multiple fortune 500 companies both in the US and around the world.  I also work extensively with Colliers’ occupier services team in Chicago, assisting with business development strategies, transaction management services, and market research for major office, industrial, healthcare, and life sciences tenants in the Chicagoland Area. 

Previously, I worked in real estate development consulting, helping both public and private developers with market and financial feasibility for major stadium, arena, mixed-use entertainment, and higher education developments throughout the United States.

As Executive Managing Director of Workplace Innovation, Corporate Solutions | Americas, Keith leads Colliers’ expertise in this rapidly evolving field, helping our clients use the workplace as a competitive advantage to advance their business objectives through innovative and insightful workplace solutions.

Additionally, Keith brings more than 30 years of experience to Colliers International, including his previous role as Senior Director, Global Workplace Innovation at Johnson & Johnson. There he was responsible for program design and deployment of a set of new workplace principles for J&J’s global office portfolio of 60 million square feet and more than 900 locations.