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Cushman & Wakefield has tapped a former Goldman Sachs and Bank of America executive to lead its diversity and inclusion efforts.
The Chicago-based brokerage has hired Nadine Augusta to serve as chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer. Augusta, who starts in the role this week, will lead the company’s plan to hire and develop a more diverse team, C&W said in a release.
“We have to be intentional and have sustained commitment, accountability, creativity and focus to achieve progress,” Augusta said in a statement. “I look forward to leading Cushman & Wakefield on its continued journey in this space.”
Augusta's hire comes amid an industrywide reckoning with a lack of diversity in commercial real estate as unrest gripped the country this summer after a black man, George Floyd, died while in police custody. The company’s 10-person board has four people of color, a recent Bisnow analysis of the diversity of the biggest brokerages’ leadership ranks found.
“While we’ve been focused on driving diversity and inclusion in our organization and have made progress, from our diverse board composition to improved talent and recruiting processes, we know that there’s still much more work to do,” Cushman & Wakefield’s Executive Chairman and CEO Brett White said in a statement. “Nadine’s appointment comes at a critical inflection point for the commercial real estate industry and is an important next step to accelerate our own journey.”
Augusta previously was head of Goldman Sachs Americas diversity and inclusion for over a year and executive director of global diversity, inclusion and corporate Responsibility at The Depository Trust and Clearing Corp., according to her LinkedIn page. She also worked on diversity at Bank of America following years as the company’s vice president for global technology and operations.
Other commercial real estate firms have appointed diversity officers this year. In June, when the nationwide unrest prompted by widespread racial injustice hit its peak, CBRE named Tim Dismond as its first chief diversity officer.
Some major firms, such as Walker & Dunlop, have committed to hiring and promoting more women and people of color, but far fewer have made any concrete promises to bring more diversity into their upper ranks.
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