LaSalle Investment Management’s Asia-Pacific CEO and CIO Mark Gabbay is to succeed Jeff Jacobson as global CEO.

The $65bn (€53bn) real estate manager said, Jacobson, who has been leading the business for the last 14 years, will stay on as chairman for at least six months to help with the transition.

Gabbay who assumes his new global CEO role on 1 January, joined LaSalle in 2010 as CIO for Asia-Pacific. In 2015, he became APAC CEO. His previous roles prior to joining LaSalle, include serving as managing director and head of the Asia asset finance division at Nomura and co-head of the Asia-Pacific global real estate group at Lehman Brothers.

Jacobson said Gabbay’s experience and track record of outperformance have been critical to the success of LaSalle’s Asia-Pacific business, and he possesses the right mix of skills, innovative thinking and leadership to drive LaSalle’s growth going forward.

Christian Ulbrich, CEO of parent company JLL, said Jacobson’s leadership and investment expertise have been instrumental in LaSalle’s success.

“We thank him for positioning the business on such solid footing and being an outstanding steward for LaSalle’s investors and employees throughout his career.”

LaSalle said as part of the succession plan, it has appointed Japan CEO Keith Fujii to take over as Asia-Pacific CEO from Gabbay.

The head of Greater China Claire Tang and the head of Japan acquisitions Kunihiko Okumura will become co-CIOs of Asia Pacific to fill the CIO role previously held by Gabbay.

LaSalle has also named the global head of corporate strategy and development Tim Kessler global COO.

Other new role appointments include Alok Gaur, global co-head of client capital group, becoming global head of client capital group and Jon Zehner, the global co-head of client capital group, transitioning to CEO of global partner solutions, succeeding Ed Casal.

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