CBRE Names Helen Gurfel New Head of Sustainability and Innovation
Global real asset investment management firm CBRE Global Investors announced today the appointment of Helen Gurfel to the newly created role of Head of Global Sustainability and Innovation.
The appointment follows the launch earlier this year of CBRE’s Sustainability Vision, outlining the firm’s sustainability goals and strategies, across a broad range of ESG factors, and including an aspiration by the company to achieve net-zero carbon by 2040 for its directly managed, long-term core investments.
In her new role, Gurfel will be key in helping CBRE achieve its Sustainability Vision, and ensuring the firm maintains a leading sustainability strategy. Gurfel will collaborate with teams across the global business on a wide spectrum of sustainability and innovation-related matters, including product architecture, capital-raising, and asset-level strategies and solutions.
Chuck Leitner, CEO of CBRE Global Investors, said:
“We are thrilled to welcome Helen as Head of Global Sustainability and Innovation. She is an authority in this space and brings a deep understanding of our strategic ambition to be a market leader in innovative and sustainable real assets investment solutions.”
Gurfel has over 25 years of experience in the industry and a track record in developing ESG and venture investment strategies. She joins CBRE from Lennar Corporation’s venture Group LENX, where she served as Managing Director, where she was involved with the development of the firm’s venture capital investment strategy. Gurfel also served as Executive Director at Urban Land Institute Greenprint Center for Building Performance and as a Director at GE Capital’s Real Estate Global Sustainability Group.
Leitner, added:
“As the world emerges from a period of immense uncertainty, it is our mission to help our clients and our users make sense of this change. With professionals of Helen’s caliber within the team, we are increasingly well-positioned to optimize the vast opportunities within the real assets sector, with purpose and alpha in equal measure.”