Cushman & Wakefield Hotels EMEA bolsters investment advisory services with key industry recruit

10 Sep, 2007, London

Cushman & Wakefield Hotels is pleased to announce the appointment of Conrad Bigham, who joins us as a director of hotels. Conrad is one of the industry’s leading experts in hospitality investment and has a career history in acquisitions, investment advisory and finance for the hotel industry. Whilst his primary geographic focus has been Europe, one early career highlight consisted of financing the acquisition and development of the Westbury Hotels in London and New York for Chelsfield PLC.

Conrad has successfully run his own consulting practice since 2002, and recently spent fifteen months as a director for CB Richard Ellis Financial Ltd. In that role he was responsible for arranging debt finance for clients across Europe, with particular focus on Central and Eastern Europe and Russia.

Prior to 2002, Conrad spent 5 years at the Royal Bank of Scotland plc where as Corporate Director he headed the London based Hotels and Leisure Team. From 1981 to 1996 he worked for Barclays Bank plc, predominantly in front line corporate lending roles.

Nick Pattie, Managing Director of Cushman & Wakefield Hotels, EMEA says ‘’Conrad’s recruitment follows Cushman & Wakefield’s recent acquisition of real estate investment banking specialist Sonnenblick Goldman in the US and signals a hotels’ step-change for our investment advisory business.’’

Sonnenblick Goldman is a premier real estate investment banking and financial services firm, specializing in providing integrated capital solutions for all asset classes. The firm is also a recognized industry leader in the financing and sale of hospitality and leisure properties. The team has been renamed Cushman & Wakefield Sonnenblick Goldman (CW/SG), capitalizing on the brand equity of both firms, and their leisure and lodging specialist will now sit with C&W’s existing Hotel Transaction Group based in New York. The company, which was founded in New York in 1893, has operations in North America, Asia and Australia has done some of the United States’ largest hospitality transactions including a $300 million refinancing for the world famous Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California and the $237 million sale of the Marriott Aruba Resort & Casino. Conrad and the team in EMEA will leverage CW/SG’s unparalleled industry relationships and track record to build a similarly successful EMEA practice.

Mark Gordon, executive vice president and head of Cushman & Wakefield’s Hospitality Group in the United States says “We are excited about the addition of Conrad to our global team of hospitality professionals, his expertise and reputation will further enhance our ability to provide the highest level of service to our clients.”

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