Sydney, 23 July 2013 - In a recruitment coup, CBRE has appointed highly regarded hospitality industry professional Arthur Buser to head the firm’s Asia Pacific Hotels team.
Mr. Buser has over 33 years of hospitality industry experience including 17 years in real estate and 16 years in operations.
He was previously CEO and President of Sunstone Hotel Investors following 11 years in a variety of roles at JLL Hotels, most notably as Head of JLLH’s US Global Hotel Capital Markets team.
CBRE’s Asia Pacific Chief Executive and Chairman Rob Blain said Mr. Buser’s appointment would add considerable strength to CBRE’s Hotels platform at both a regional and global level given his depth of experience, strong client relationships and extensive market knowledge.
“Art has a wealth of hospitality experience across all facets of the market, including acquisitions, dispositions and asset management,” Mr. Blain said.
“He has the skills and vision to drive the continued growth and success of our Asia Pacific Hotels team and ensure we are providing the highest level of service and support to our clients, not just in this region but across our global hotel platform and our broader Capital Markets business.”
Mr. Blain added; “We have been aggressively pursuing a strategy over many years to improve our hotels and leisure platform in Asia Pacific. For this strategy to be successful it is totally dependent on us having the right leader with global and regional experience. More than ever, we see real opportunity in connecting cross border capital across Asia and Pacific and this appointment will give us real firepower in this regard.”
During his time with Sunstone Hotels, Mr. Buser headed a NYSE listed company with 33 upper-upscale hotels, 13,000 rooms, revenue of US$800 million and EBITDA of US$160M. He oversaw a total return on share price of over 200% and repositioned Sunstone for future growth by reducing near term debt by US$650 million, raising US$450 million in equity and disposing of 15 non-core hotels.
Prior to Sunstone, he held a variety of roles at JLL Hotels, personally transacted over US$4 billion of hotel debt and equity transactions and was a global board member of JLL Hotels.
He has also worked in various management and operations roles at The Yarmouth Group and Hilton Hotels Corporation, holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Hotel Administration from the Cornell School of Hotel Administration and has an MBA from The UCLA Anderson School of Management.
In his new role as Executive Managing Director, CBRE Hotels Asia Pacific, Mr. Buser will be based in CBRE’s Singapore office, overseeing the firm’s team of hotel industry professionals throughout the region and working closely with Robert McIntosh, Executive Director, CBRE Hotels, Asia Pacific.
He will commence with CBRE in Q3, 2013.
CBRE President & CEO, Australia & New Zealand, Tom Southern said the appointment would add considerable strength to the firm’s Pacific platform.
“We already have a significant presence in Pacific with over 30 dedicated specialists in the hotel and leisure sector,” Mr. Southern said.
“This appointment will help facilitate us working even more closely with our Hotels team in Asia to add real firepower to our business.”
About CBRE Group, Inc.
CBRE Group, Inc. (NYSE:CBG), a Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company headquartered in Los Angeles, is the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firm (in terms of 2012 revenue). The Company has approximately 37,000 employees (excluding affiliates), and serves real estate owners, investors and occupiers through more than 300 offices (excluding affiliates) worldwide. CBRE offers strategic advice and execution for property sales and leasing; corporate services; property, facilities and project management; mortgage banking; appraisal and valuation; development services; investment management; and research and consulting. Please visit our website at www.cbre.com.
