Savills Names Its Next CEO

A new name is moving to the top of Savills’ org chart.

Simon Shaw, the firm’s chief financial officer, will take the CEO role on Jan. 1 after Mark Ridley retires at the end of the year. 

Ridley spent nearly three decades at the company and has been CEO for the last seven years. He will retire from his role and the board this December, according to a press release.

Ridley’s real estate career spans 41 years in the UK. He joined Savills in 1996 and became a board member in 2018. He will continue to work with Savills postretirement as a senior adviser, Chair Stacey Cartwright said in the release. 

Shaw has been CFO since coming to Savills in 2009. He has an accounting background and is chairman of Savills’ private equity arm, Grosvenor Hill Ventures Ltd., a subsidiary that formed in 2016 and focuses on proptech ventures. Before Savills, Simon was CFO at medical device company Gyrus Group Ltd. He also served as chief operating officer at Profile Therapeutics.

The brokerage brought in £2.4B, or $2.7B, in revenue last year, a 7% increase from 2023 driven by transactional advising. 

Assets under management decreased from £22.1B to £21.7B, which Savills attributed to property valuation adjustments and new capital raises. Investment management, which Shaw oversees as CFO, posted an 11% drop in revenue during 2024. 

The company isn't just shaking up leadership across the pond. Last week, Amy Kaufman Brendler and Jon Glass were named co-leads of Savills' D.C. office. Brendler previously led leasing strategy across 4M SF at Tishman Speyer and was senior vice president at CWCapital. Glass joined Savills in 2007 as a financial analyst. The two replaced Tom Fulcher. 

Savills is on the hunt for a new chief financial officer to take over Shaw’s role. It will hold its annual general meeting May 14.