Exceptional achievement

2007 WINNER

From left: Martin Samworth and Mike Strong of CB Richard Ellis with Sir Sir Nigel Knowles of sponsors MPF

The winner of the 2007 MPF Award for Exceptional Achievement is property consultancy CB Richard Ellis.

CBRE has been active in the City of London since 1773. It's a firm that combines longevity with management excellence. Its vision of becoming a global player can be traced back to the late 1960's with the opening of offices in key European and Commonwealth cities. The firm quickly realised that the key to global success was strong local leadership. Based on this insight, it continued to grow across Europe and Asia Pacific over the next two decades. North America is essential to a true global presence. This was achieved in 1998, when the EMEA firm merged with a leading US firm with similar ambitions and a shared belief that the merged firm could become a major player in a rapidly consolidating sector. Local management pressed ahead with ambitious plans to create an EMEA wide firm. This involved mergers with over 30 firms based throughout Europe. The firm's management philosophy has been to focus on having the very best people through recruitment and mergers, and keeping them energised through great clients and tough professional challenges. The management team reflects the geographic balance of the business. It's a young team but almost all the senior positions are held by people who have grown with the firm. This is an amazing achievement given that in 30 years turnover has grown from £15m in EMEA to over $5bn globally today.

2007 SPONSOR

The Managing Partners' Forum is dedicated to enhancing leadership and the status of the management team in professional firms. Founded in 1995, the Forum organises high profile campaigns - for example 'unsung heroes' - holds bi-monthly events, publishes a newsletter and organises member surveys. Membership is open to leaders of firms with ambition plus members of the management team sponsored by the leader.