Executive director, corporate real estate advisory group at Cushman & Wakefield/NorthMarq

David Brown, 56, has joined Bloomington-based Cushman & Wakefield/NorthMarq as an executive director in its corporate real estate advisory group. He will help companies with their real estate transaction management, portfolio management, site selection and strategic planning.

Brown, a Fargo, N.D., native, is a 25-year real estate veteran with expertise in tenant representation and advisory services. He has completed more than 600 real estate transactions exceeding 15 million square feet in 41 states and 10 countries. His clients have included Fortune 500 companies like Best Buy, Hormel and Xcel Energy. He says doing multimarket assignments for corporations is his "bread and butter."

Before joining Cushman & Wakefield/NorthMarq, Brown was the principal of Minnetonka-based Brown Commercial Real Estate Services, which he launched in 2007. He also was a senior vice president at CBRE and a real estate director at American Express.

Q: What will be your primary responsibilities in this position?

A: My forte is providing transaction management services to companies that have multiple locations across the United States as well as ­globally. Transaction management is basically acting as a single point of contact for what's typically a real estate director of a big company and helping with their real estate transactions. I advise and partner with them and basically learn their processes, needs and goals … and then hire brokers in the market where the transaction is being performed.

Q: Can you offer an example?

A: If a company has a transaction that needs to be performed in Dallas, I will hire a broker in that market who will provide the local market intelligence in terms of space availability and market conditions and take the client on tours [of space]. What I come to the party with is a process of how the client wants to see that work performed. … So I manage the local broker and the process to meet the needs of my client.

Q: What are the biggest challenges in this role?

A: Trying to build the relationships internally with a very large global organization and really start to network within the company to make ­certain that I'm taking full advantage and leveraging the capabilities of this company.

Q: How did your work as a real estate director for American Express help prepare you, because essentially, you were on the other side of the table?

A: Handling a bunch of real estate transactions around the country for American Express is how I really learned to perform the work required to do tenant representation. … Plus, I learned a lot about how corporations think and make decisions about real estate and all the other areas impacted by real estate — coordinating with the design group, the furniture people, the technology people. … I understand the problems that a real estate manager faces every day.

Liz Wolf is a freelance writer in Eagan. She can be reached at wolfliz99@aol.com.