Porschke returns to his 'property roots' at JLL

Frank Pörschke sees his new role as CEO at Jones Lang LaSalle Germany as an opportunity to get back to his ‘property roots’ following a four-year stint in banking. Pörschke, who left Eurohypo as CEO at the end of August by mutual consent, will officially join JLL as CEO on 1 January 2012, replacing Andreas Quint who has been in the role for three years. However, there will be a ‘handover’ phase, starting this November, where Pörschke and Quint will work side by side for two months.

‘It’s funny, when I joined banking four years ago people said, ‘That’s interesting, you’re not a banker’. And now that I’m going back to property, people are saying it’s an interesting move for a banker! When I was trying to decide what to do next, I felt that I didn’t need to stay in banking. Actually, it was a preference to go back to my property roots,’ Pörschke told PropertyEU.

The attraction of JLL is that it is a ‘premier proper brand’, Pörschke said. ‘I could always imagine working for them. The position came up, I thought it was an interesting one, and it allowed me to go back to property.’

Following the formal handover in January, Quint will move into an EMEA regional role as head of the firm's corporate finance division, which operates out of London and Frankfurt.

According to Marcus Lemli, head of leasing and capital markets at JLL in Germany, Pörschke’s appointment spells great news for the brokerage firm: ‘He will bring excellent contacts, not only with regard to real estate financing,’ he told PropertyEU.

Pörschke’s appointment to the role should not come as a surprise, one Frankfurt based real estate insider, who asked not to be identified, told PropertyEU. ‘He is the right man in terms of JLL’s and Christian Ulbrich’s philosophy, with a high level consulting approach, rather than a broker approach. Frank is the ideal person with his mix of real estate and financing experiences,’ he said.

Nevertheless, the move has come as a surprise to some property insiders who expected Pörschke to end up at the helm of another German lender. ‘After being chairman at a major bank, going to JLL seems to be an unusual move,’ one German real estate advisor, who asked not to be named, told PropertyEU. ‘However, I understand that Pörschke and Ulbrich (Christian Ulbrich, CEO of JLL’s EMEA operations) are good buddies and that Ulbrich has tried to recruit him before.’

The full interview appears in the October issue of PropertyEU. Click here to subscribe: