History

The Beginning

Cushman & Wakefield in EMEA was formed in 1998 as Cushman & Wakefield Healey & Baker (C&W/H&B), as a result of the merger of global real estate consultancy Cushman & Wakefield, headquartered in New York, and the European real estate firm Healey & Baker, based in London. The merger followed a European 'alliance' of ten years, during which time the two firms worked hand in hand across the Atlantic.

While Cushman & Wakefield's history stretches back to 1917 in New York, that of Healey & Baker started in 1820, when George Healey set up business, taking building leases on Crown lands to the east and north of Regents Park at the time when Regent's Street was being built.

Over the subsequent years, the firm greatly expanded its activities in London, in particular in the Bayswater Road area , with George's son, Alfred, becoming a partner in 1860 and remaining so until his death in 1915. In 1910, George Henry Baker joined the firm and by 1920 George had become a partner and the firm had become known as Healey & Baker, focusing on commercial property.

In the post-Second World War years, the vast increase in property values made companies more aware of their property ownership, and from this awareness flowed many valuations, of which a considerable number were undertaken by the firm.

Expansion into Europe

In the 1970s, the Firm set its sights on the rest of Europe. In 1972 we opened an office in Paris and by the end of the decade were present in Brussels, Amsterdam, City of London and Glasgow. Expansion continued in the '80s & 90s by which time we had over 20 offices throughout EMEA.

Going Global

When Cushman & Wakefield and Healey & Baker merged in 1998, the Firm became one of the world's leading real estate consultancies. On 25 March 2002, Healey & Baker changed its name to Cushman & Wakefield Healey & Baker to reflect the global nature of both its services and its ownership. We continue to invest in Europe with recent additions to the firm in 2004 and 2005 with offices in Greece and Russia.

On 13th March 2006, Cushman & Wakefield Healey & Baker became known simply as Cushman & Wakefield in EMEA aligning the brand with other global regions.

On 1st January 2006, Paul Bacon was took over from John Travers as the new CEO of EMEA region during the year the firm increased it presence in Scandinavia with a new office in Finland.

Cushman & Wakefield celebrated its 90th anniversary in 2007, and marked the milestone in EMEA with further expansion into emerging markets with new operations in Romania and also Ukraine. In April 2007, IFIL – the investment group of the Agnelli family, one of Europe's leading entrepreneurial families – acquired a 70 percent stake in Cushman & Wakefield, thus becoming the firm’s majority shareholder.

In 2008, The firm continued its European expansion with a new operation in Turkey, a new Birmingham office in the UK, and a new operation in Dubai serving major regional markets of the Middle East including UAE, the Gulf States, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
Cushman & Wakefield has more than 13,000 professionals operating in 231 offices in 58 countries around the world.

It offers the full range of commercial property services and represents a wide range of clients, including multinational corporations, pension funds, developers, entrepreneurs, government entities, small and medium-sized companies and financial institutions.