CBRE, the leading global real estate advisor, has strengthened its research team with the appointment of leading retail specialist Andrew Phipps.

Andrew joins as Head of Retail Research and Consulting for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and will help to develop and drive CBRE’s consulting capability across Europe.

Andrew was previously Head of Retail at GfK Retail and Technology and has over 20 years’ of specialist retail experience. He brings with him a combination of global retailing knowledge, consulting and market research expertise. Andrew has worked closely with leading global retail brands across Europe, North America, Asia Pacific and Africa advising on their strategy to enable them to respond to the changing retail market dynamics.

Neil Blake, Head of EMEA Research, CBRE commented: “Andrew’s appointment is a valuable addition to our research team and will further strengthen and extend our retail research and consulting capability across EMEA. Unrivalled market insight has always been a key area of our client service and Andrew will help support the further development of our research agenda.”

Andrew Phipps, commented: “CBRE is unrivalled in the generation of thought leadership in the commercial real estate industry and the opportunity to work on the retail facing element of this excites me greatly. The retail industry, as ever, is in the midst of a period of change and I look forward to joining CBRE’s Research and Consulting team to provide guidance, understanding and actionable insight in further developing what has been achieved to date”

Andrew’s appointment follows the recent recruitment of Miles Gibson as Head of UK research and Richard Barkham as Global Chief Economist.