Longtime Cushman & Wakefield executive Andrew Judd has been named chief operating officer of JRT Realty Group, the nation’s largest certified woman-owned commercial real estate firm, the firm announced Thursday.
An industry veteran with more than 30 years of experience, Judd will lead the firm’s efforts to help Fortune 500 firms and others maximize their Tier 1 and Tier 2 supplier diversity spending mandates as many seek to be part of the Billion Dollar Roundtable, an elite group of companies that reach $1 billion in spending with minority- and women-owned firms.
Judd, who lives in New Jersey, will be based in New York City and report to JRT Realty Founder and CEO Jodi Pulice.
Internally, Judd will be responsible for business strategies, operating plans and procedures, new business development and existing account oversight, recruitment and retention initiatives and cross selling the firm’s breadth of real estate services to its clients. He also will oversee the firm’s staff, including leasing and sales brokers, account managers, marketing and corporate communications specialists and support personnel.
“This is an incredible opportunity to join a mission-driven organization and work together with the leadership team to chart the path forward for JRT, which is on an upward trajectory,” Judd said. “My career has come full circle, returning to the New York City market where I first got my start in the industry. I’m excited for our growth plans and the opportunity to have a direct and meaningful impact nationally, in New York City and within the commercial real estate industry at large.”
Pulice said she was thrilled to make the hire.
“Andrew has been a friend and colleague for more than twenty years and, along with JRT’s strategic alliance with Cushman & Wakefield, he has consistently supported our mission to bring diversity into the realm of commercial real estate,” she said. “Andrew’s combination of skills, experience, and industry stature will be leveraged immediately as our firm is poised for rapid growth.”
While diversity and inclusion have historically been treated as afterthoughts or as ideas that merely “check off the box,” Pulice has made creating new and lasting opportunities in commercial real estate for women, people of color, and other groups who are often under-represented in the industry in order to create generational wealth one of JRT’s core principles.
“Andrew shares my vision for the future of commercial real estate,” Pulice said. “We both believe we have a moral and ethical responsibility to change the narrative — and the reality. The more you diversify the makeup of your teams, the more you broaden your opportunities and the service provided to clients. Being inclusive isn’t just the right thing to do. It’s also good business.”
Prior to joining JRT, Judd spent 17 years with Cushman & Wakefield, most recently serving as senior managing director and managing principal for the firm’s New Jersey region. In this position, he managed brokerage and business line professionals, and oversaw all organizational activities affecting more than 250 employees across the company’s three New Jersey offices, which consistently ranked among the most profitable markets in the company.
Judd began his real estate career at CBRE in the New York City office, where he served as managing director of marketing services.
He received an M.B.A. degree and bachelor’s degree from Fordham University.
