Valdez joins Colliers International

Colliers International has continued to expand and diversify its brokerage division with the addition of David Valdez as a senior managing director. Valdez advises tenants and landlords in the execution of office lease transactions, with experience advising both corporate clients and nonprofit organizations. Most recently Valdez was an entrepreneur advising tenants and landlords in the city and South Florida real estate markets. Prior to that role, for four years he was a vice president at Goldman Sachs, where he negotiated the business terms for leases, property acquisition and disposition agreements, and worked with others to complete real estate transactions and reposition firm-owned assets throughout the Americas. Among his achievements with Goldman Sachs, Valdez co-led the firm's acquisition and participated in the repositioning of the Embassy Suites Hotel & Retail complex in Battery Park City. Valdez is also an advisor to the nonprofit sector. Over a two-year period on a pro bono basis, as a board member of the Gay Men's Health Crisis and Chair of its Real Estate Committee, he managed a 165,000 s/f space requirement in the city for the organization that resulted in a relocation of its headquarters and approximately $27 million in cost savings compared the cost of renewing the lease. Valdez was honored with the 2011 Top Dealmaker of the Year award by the Daily Business Review for this transaction. He has also presented real estate best practices at numerous nonprofit conferences. "David Valdez has a unique and valuable skill set that will greatly enhance our expanding brokerage division," said Joseph Harbert, president of Colliers International's Eastern Region. "His corporate real estate role with Goldman Sachs has provided him with nuanced transactional and strategic insight into managing a global portfolio - an asset to any tenant or landlord. He has also done tremendous work with nonprofits, which is both socially responsible and good business." Before joining Goldman Sachs, Valdez served as a managing director at the Edward S. Gordon Co. and as a first vice president with CB Richard Ellis for nine years in New York, developing and managing new, portfolio-level national accounts. Prominent clients included WestLB, AboveNet Communications, and Lehman Brothers, for which he negotiated transactions nationally, including a 710,000 s/f lease at One World Financial Center. Valdez holds a master's degree in public administration from Syracuse University, as well as a bachelor's degree from Whitman College. He also attended two non-degree programs at Harvard University, including as an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, and the Goldman Sachs Nonprofit Leadership Program at Harvard Business School. Colliers International is the third-largest commercial real estate services company in the world, with over 12,300 professionals operating out of more than 520 offices in 62 countries. A subsidiary of FirstService Corp., it focuses on accelerating success for its clients by seamlessly providing a full range of services to real estate users, owners and investors worldwide, including global corporate solutions, brokerage, property and asset management, hotel investment sales and consulting, valuation, consulting and appraisal services, mortgage banking and research. Commercial Property Executive and Multi-Housing News magazines ranked Colliers International the top U.S. real estate company. The latest annual survey by the Lipsey Company ranked Colliers International as the second-most recognized commercial real estate firm in the world.