Jeff Vertun is the First Vice President at CBRE, the world’s largest commercial real estate services firm. He specializes in advising technology, media, e-commerce, 3PL, and professional service companies to position their real estate needs as a vehicle for further growth across the world. Jeff also works closely with executives to analyze their office workplace and warehouse network logistics requirements. He engages in challenging strategic conversations and brings clarity to their opportunities through data-driven technology resources before executing them. Each client is treated like a long-term relationship and he prides himself on hustle, communication, and collaboration.
Jeff Vertun’s team is continually involved with entrepreneurial programs and their network of relationships within the community is particularly robust. He is passionate about the success of his clients and he goes out of his way to make introductions and intimate gatherings that will help his clients thrive. Before joining CBRE in 2017, Jeff was Vice President at Avison Young where he helped form and run the firm’s Global Technology/New Media Practice Group.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- Jeff talks about his background and what he does in his current role
- The kind of advice Jeff gives clients who are planning for growth and need bigger space
- Why a company’s culture and work environment need to be considered when planning a move
- The need to have your company’s team and head of HR involved in the decision-making process
- Why having data is important when making change decisions and what large organizations need to consider when moving to a new location
- At what stage of growth do companies seek to work with Jeff?
- The changes Jeff has seen in Los Angeles office spaces over the last couple of years
- How COVID-19 has affected companies with in-person office spaces as well as those that have both office spaces and warehouses
- Working from home versus working in the office, and the appeal for different demographics
- Common concerns employees have when startup companies open offices in different locations
- The office amenities most employees love and enjoy
- Greg talks about his experience shifting to remote work and his thoughts on working from home
- Common missteps companies make when investing in real estate and Jeff’s advice on working with advisors
- Why industrial real estate is currently doing well
- Jeff talks about CBRE’s use of technology
- Where to learn more about Jeff Vertun
In this episode…
If your startup is looking for office space, the main thing you need to consider is the number of employees you’ll have in the short term. But for large organizations, finding a new office space requires a strategic plan to avoid making costly mistakes. There are a couple of factors to look into, like the company culture, location, office layout and design, and the work environment. For example, it may be an inconvenience for the sales team to be working near the legal or finance team.
In addition, large organizations need to bring the divisional heads together during the planning process to ensure that the needs and requirements of every team are met.
Jeff Vertun, the First Vice President of CBRE, joins Greg Toroosian in this week’s episode of Elevate Hire to talk about the real estate sector and how companies should use insights and data to plan strategically. They also talk about the need to have team heads taking part in the office planning process, changes in the Los Angeles office landscape, the effects of COVID-19 on real estate, and Jeff’s advice to companies looking to move to bigger spaces. Keep listening for more.
Resources mentioned in this episode
- Elevate Hire
- CBRE
- Jeff Vertun on LinkedIn
- Jeff Vertun’s email: jeff.vertun@cbre.com
- Jeff Vertun’s blog
- Zoom
- Google Hangouts
- Flowspace
Sponsor for this episode…
This episode is brought to you by Elevate Hire, a talent acquisition firm which provides leadership and senior level recruiting services for early-stage companies. Elevate Hire also offers advisory and consultancy services for select clients.
Elevate Hire was founded by Greg Toroosian after more than a decade in the Talent Acquisition space, working with startups, globally recognized brands and recruiting agencies, because I found that too many early-stage companies were struggling to recruit and retain top talent during crucial times of growth.
Because recruitment and talent retainment are keys to having a successful company in today’s fast-paced economy, Elevate Hire is committed to helping you recruit the right top tier talent, at the right time, can differentiate the most successful companies from the rest of their field.
If your company needs assistance with talent search, hiring process improvements, choosing and implementing recruiting tools, team training, or if you’re in need of an advisor, get in touch with us today to find out how we can make this work so that you can start building the company of your dreams.
Click this link to learn more about us and the services that we can provide for you and your company.
Episode Transcript
Intro 0:04
Welcome to the Elevate Hire podcast where CEOs, founders, and executives of early-stage companies talk through their experiences in building teams.
Greg Toroosian 0:16
Greg Toroosian here, Founder of Elevate Hire and host of the Elevate Hire podcast where I talk with CEOs, founders, and executives about the challenges and successes they’ve had while recruiting for their teams. This episode is brought to you by Elevate Hire, a talent acquisition advisory, consultancy, and execution firm who recruit leadership and senior-level team members for early-stage and rapidly growing companies. We believe that recruiting and retaining talent is key to having a successful company. In today’s fast-moving economy. Being able to recruit the right top talent at the right time can differentiate the most successful companies from the rest of their field. If your company needs assistance, recruiting key team members, improving your hiring processes, choosing and implementing recruiting tools, structuring and training your team or if you need an advisor then We can help. For more details visit elevatehire.com.
Today’s guest is a slight break from the norm. We have Jeff Vertun first vice president as CBRE. Jeff worked with many startup founders and teams to come up with creative real estate solutions for their expanding businesses. I’m excited to talk through his perspective on team building, the vise he gives his clients when planning for their growth. And for him to share insights that many of us have never even thought about. Welcome to the show, Jeff.
Jeff Vertun 1:25
Thank you for having.
Greg Toroosian 1:28
Yeah, you’re welcome. I appreciate you actually taking the time to speak with us. And I’m, as I said, excited to jump in here and find out more about your world and how you’ve been working with people really, especially in this current climate with COVID. So firstly, I’d like to hand it over to the guest if you can just give us a brief intro on yourself and background on your career, how you got to this point, and also a bit more about your role. That would be great.
Jeff Vertun 1:53
Sure thing. I’ll keep it brief. But I’m born and raised in Los Angeles. I went to UC Berkeley undergrad where I worked in tech was in the bay, which really was the start of granting me this. And I always wanted to be in a position that allowed me to do things differently, innovate, and control my narrative and align with people that are doing the same. I’ve been back in LA in my current career for over a decade. I live in Mar Vista, my wife, and Nicole baby Ayla. I’m a commercial real estate adviser, exclusively representing tenants or companies, helping executives to align their unique business plans with specific real estate strategies for office and warehouse portfolios. I’m based in LA where I certainly do a lot of work. But I do work with companies all over the globe managing complex portfolio management. I work in care, which is the world’s largest commercial real estate services firm. I get to leverage their immense global resources and technologies. But I operate as an independent contractor with full autonomy. I’ve built my own team that runs on our own and we focus on helping dynamic companies typically Clean Tech media e-commerce logistics, three PL and professional services. And today, I think we’ll go a variety of ways. But we can explore how companies are really making meaningful improvements to the impact that the facilities have on their business on their people. We can talk about the differences and similarities of thinking about offices and warehouses as companies can have. And then, of course, we will discuss the impact of COVID. On the challenges and opportunities that are being created in the short and long term.
Greg Toroosian 3:32
That would be great. Yeah, I’d love to cover all of that. Because, as I mentioned to you beforehand, this show tends to talk about experiences building teams, from a company perspective, hiring managers, execs, founders, and what they’ve kind of learned along the way through their careers and stuff like that. But you’ve got this really unique perspective where you’re helping them point where companies are planning for growth, right? So I really want to dive into that, you know, Know that advice that you give.
Greg Toroosian 4:03
when we were speaking previously, you weren’t more consultative Lee you sit there, you know you have a seat at the table to talk through and help them plan where they want to invest what they want to do with it, what they, whether it’s going to be HQ for everyone, is only going to be for, you know, a portion of the team, what the long term growth is, etc. What kind of advice do you actually give? How do you start off your conversations with your clients, when they come to you and say, Hey, we just got funding. We want to grow from 10 people to 100 in the next year, whatever. And we need space. What does that look like?
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