CBRE hired a former Facebook executive to launch the innovation-focused CBRE x Industrious Building Experiences Lab.

Annie Dean, who previously led workplace experience and flexible work efforts at Facebook and software developer Atlassian, will head the new department, CBRE announced this week.

“The lab will aim to transform offices, logistics centers, storefronts, and other commercial settings — the buildings that power the global economy — into more human-focused, empowering and delightful places to work,” the global brokerage and real estate services firm said in a statement

Dean will also serve as CBRE’s global chief strategy officer for its building operations and experience business segment. She’ll lead the newly established lab in developing and implementing “real-world products, rather than abstract research” focused on the future of work, CBRE said.

The lab will collaborate closely with Industrious, the coworking firm CBRE acquired in January at an $800M valuation, and CBRE’s existing workplace strategy consulting practice, led by Lenny Beaudoin, to deploy new data-driven solutions that use anonymized data to gain a granular understanding of worker habits.

“Offices have a measurement problem. TikTok knows you within seconds, but your physical workplace knows relatively little about you,” Dean said in an email.

Jamie Hodari, the CEO of CBRE’s building operations and experiences segment and the founder and former CEO of Industrious, said the new lab will work with CBRE’s most demanding clients to design workspaces that deliver experiences typically associated with great hotels and restaurants.

The new lab led by Dean will start working with its first few clients by the end of the year, with its first marketwide product launching in the first half of 2026, Hodari said in an email.

Dean was most recently the head of Team Anywhere at Atlassian, directing the software developer’s real estate and workplace experience teams and a research lab examining the impact of artificial intelligence on work patterns, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Prior to that, Dean spent two years as the director of remote work at Facebook. She also led her own startup, Werk.co, providing flexible work consulting services from 2016 to 2020.

Dallas-headquartered CBRE is the world's largest commercial real estate services and investment firm by revenue, with more than 140,000 employees serving more than 100 companies.

It’s been buoyed by the slow return of transaction activity in 2025, with the firm boosting its full-year guidance in July after posting a 16% year-over-year increase in second-quarter revenue.

The layout, design and purpose of office space has been in flux as companies move past return-to-office policies and chart a course forward that puts technology at the center of the workplace and frequently embraces hybrid work. The shift is reflected in today’s leasing trends as occupiers continue to pile into top-tier offices.

“Businesses collaborate through technology, which has never been more true in the age of AI,” Dean said. “When everything is virtual, the real world matters more than ever. And as a result, the world is ready for a different kind of workplace experience.”