This article appeared originally on CoStar News.
Global brokerage firm Cresa has tapped an information technology veteran who's held key information technology roles at JLL and a retail real estate investment trust to replace its longtime chief information officer.
Cresa, which focuses on representing occupiers of space, has hired Dipesh Shah as its new chief information officer. In his new role, Shah will lead Cresa’s IT team and manage the company’s client-facing technology platform.
He will also lead the technology advisory and business intelligence components of Cresa’s consulting services.
Shah replaced David Nuss, who had served as Cresa's chief information officer and recently left the firm, a company spokeswoman confirmed.
Cresa's hiring of Shah comes as commercial real estate and other companies across the globe depend more on their digital and technology platforms to conduct business and communicate while workforces deal with the pandemic. In May, global brokerage firm Newmark hired Sridhar Potineni as its chief information officer.
A 25-year veteran of technology and business-to-business consulting, Shah previously served as principal of New Roads Consulting, an Atlanta-based firm he founded that focused on helping global companies optimize operations and deliver business technology initiatives across the real estate spectrum. His experience will help Cresa enhance its IT group, CEO Tod Lickerman said.
“Technology is an integral part of how we operate as a company and service our clients, and we all experienced a dramatic increase in technology adoption during the pandemic,” Lickerman said in a statement.
The addition of Shah helps Cresa "meet our changing needs and our accelerating growth objectives," Lickerman said.
Cresa has its main office in Washington, D.C., though Lickerman is located in its Chicago office. Cresa is expected to officially announce Shah's hiring this week.
Before launching New Roads Consulting in November 2017, Shah served more than three years as chief information officer of InvenTrust Properties, a public, nonlisted REIT that owns grocery-anchored neighborhood centers mostly in the Sun Belt.
From 2007 to 2015, Shah worked at JLL, the second-largest commercial real estate service firm based on revenue. At JLL, where he was a senior vice president, Shah acted as the IT business partner for the firm's facilities management, lease administration, project management, strategic consulting and transaction management business lines.
Shah said he made the move to Cresa because of the opportunity he saw to work with Lickerman and the leadership team to help the firm grow and expand its technology platform for its internal team and clients.
“Real estate is at an amazing crossroads where data and information are going to provide a strategic differentiator to the few that jump in and adopt," Shah said in a statement.