Cushman & Wakefield picked an industry veteran with stops at multiple top brokerages to lead its Midwest region and replace its current executive, who is soon to retire.
Damla Gerhart will join the company on March 2 as executive regional director of the Midwest. She will oversee the brokerage's operations and growth initiatives in the region, which includes Chicago, Cincinnati, Columbus, Detroit, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Minneapolis and St. Louis.
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Gerhart will lead client service delivery, talent development and recruiting while spearheading business collaboration across the firm’s service lines.
“Cushman & Wakefield is in a period of incredible momentum, and I am excited to join the firm at such a pivotal time,” Gerhart said in a statement.
Gerhart joins Cushman after serving as the principal and regional managing director of Avison Young's central region for the past two years. The industry veteran with two decades of CRE experience also spent six years at JLL and nearly 10 years at CBRE.
The Purdue graduate will replace current Midwest head Vicki Noonan, who is slated to retire on March 31 after nine years with the company. Gerhart will be based in Chicago and report to Victoria Malkin, Cushman's president of Americas markets.
Cushman's recruitment of top talent from a rival brokerage is part of its continued aggressive hiring in 2025. Cushman more than doubled its 2024 full-year recruitment numbers across the business in the first nine months of 2025.
Malkin told Bisnow in September the company is in a strong financial position and set for growth and that it sees an active market ahead.
“We also have a market that is improving in front of us, and now is our time to continue to build our bench and fill key gaps and make sure we have the right professionals to serve our clients across markets and product types and specializations,” she said.
Cushman is set to release its 2025 fourth-quarter and full-year earnings later this month, but in Q3, it raised its full-year adjusted earnings per share guidance to 30% to 35% growth, up from previous guidance of 25% to 35%.
The raised guidance signaled expectations of further growth to close out the year, buoyed by strong revenues in the third quarter.
Cushman’s overall revenue of $2.6B in Q3 was an 11% increase year-over-year. The company's leasing revenue increased 9% to $538M, primarily led by office and industrial leasing in the Americas.
Cushman CEO Michelle MacKay said on the company’s Q3 earnings call it had a 40% increase year-over-year in the number of “large and megadeals” in its pipeline
“Simply put, the momentum is continuing into the fourth quarter,” MacKay said.
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