Q&A: Cresa’s New CEO Ray Anderson Talks Raising Capital, AI and Weaponizing Brokerage Conflicts

Newly hired tech veteran is leveraging firm's new platform and occupiers-only model to steal market share

When Chicago-based brokerage Cresa's board decided it was time to accelerate growth, it didn't just look for a new CEO, but searched outside the insular club of commercial real estate.

Ray Anderson's appointment earlier this year marks a departure from his predecessor, Tod Lickerman, a traditional CRE heavyweight who previously ran global brokerage empires at DTZ, Cushman & Wakefield and JLL. Anderson, however, is a former EY-Parthenon partner and consulting executive for tech services who comes armed with a playbook built on mergers, acquisitions and raising capital, not old-school rolodexes full of landlords and brokers.

Cresa brought him on to scale.

His first major salvo is the rollout of Cresa Core, an AI-powered technology platform meant to guide tenants' lease administration, accounting and site selection decisions, as well as provide insights on labor analytics essential to clients' needs and uses for real estate, among other functions.

Beyond deploying new tech, Anderson is executing a growth strategy fueled by North American acquisitions and some traditional poaching of top-producing brokers from rival behemoths like CBRE and JLL. He spoke with The Real Deal about his outsider's transition into commercial real estate, how he plans to raise more capital to expand the brokerage and his acquisitions strategy.


Click here to read the full Q&A on The Real Deal