| If you ask UGL Equis co-managing directors Dirk Hrobsky and Chris Helgesen where they’d like to travel back in time (Brian Williams has nothing on our interview questions), it would be their days growing NY’s Trammell Crow office. The firm was eventually acquired by CB Richard Ellis, but now the duo is again where they want to be— building an office for a significant team-oriented services platform. | |
| Call it Trammell Crow 2.0 with the added bonus of a global company with an engineering and infrastructure background (much like TCC, which hinged on development). Since Dirk and Chris took UGL’s NY helm 15 months ago, it’s grown from 12 to 35 people, and they’re ready to expand its 1211 Avenue of the Americas footprint for 60 employees by year’s end. Their team includes former TCC colleagues like Jon Schulman and 30-year vet Tom Grenier, formerly of CBRE, whom they just hired on. In the past six months, they’ve expanded their consulting, project management, and brokerage services; new clients include The Princeton Review, Susquehanna International, Group, Wealth Tax Advisory Services, Reval, and the Australian Consulate. | |
| The office predicts a 300% increase in revenue, including a tenfold increase in project management services, they tell us. The success may be attributable to the fact that Dirk and Chris mesh so well—they’ve been partners for 15 years, starting at Williams Real Estate before co-founding TCC’s NY office. They joke that it’s sometimes better than a marriage—you’re not allowed to linger on petty disputes, moving past them for a greater cause. Their survival tips? Brutal honesty, trust, a selfless approach, and working together to accentuate strengths (their simple rule for themselves and everyone they work with: we versus me, and misanthropes need not apply). |
RISE AGAIN
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Related Topics:
Brian Williams
, Chris Helgesen
, Dirk Hrobsky
, Jon Schulman
, The Princeton Review
, Tom Grenier
, Williams Real Estate
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