Cushman & Wakefield has a new leader of its facilities management arm.

The Chicago-based international brokerage appointed Mia Mends as CEO of C&W Services, underscoring the current competition for office tenants and the expanded nature of services and support being offered to clients.

Composed of 13,000 staff operating across the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico, C&W Services oversees roughly 600M SF of commercial space. The occupier services space has seen exceptional uptake recently, with firms and landlords seeking strategy and redesign advice amid a pivot to hybrid work and the drawn-out back-to-office push.

Mends, an experienced Houston-based executive who most recently served as a chief administrative officer for Sodexo, has previously worked for Impact Ventures. She will begin her new role immediately and join Cushman & Wakefield’s global management team as her predecessor, Paul Bedborough, retires.

Mends led key DEI initiatives while at Sodexo and was quoted in a Wall Street Journal story last year urging other companies and executives to support expanded voting rights.