Stronger Together: Turner & Townsend and CBRE Project Management combine businesses
The start of 2025 marked a significant step for Turner & Townsend when CBRE combined its project management business with Turner & Townsend. Sogol Azarbad and Monne van Egmond discuss how the joining of forces has strengthened the business and their experiences on the integration.
Until 2025, Sogol Azarbad and Monne van Egmond worked for two different firms: the prior joined CBRE in 2014, while the latter joined Turner & Townsend two years later in 2016.
They have shared the same ambition for many years. “We want to perform at the highest level and work on the most iconic construction projects,” says Monne. “Deliver world-class outcomes, that is what we strive for every day,” adds Sogol.
Working for CBRE and Turner & Townsend meant they are well positioned to achieve these goals. CBRE is the world’s largest commercial real estate services and investment firm, and Turner & Townsend is a global leader in programme, project and cost and commercial management for the construction sector.
Following the combining of CBRE Project Management with Turner & Townsend, operating under the Turner & Townsend brand, Sogol and Monne are now working more closely together.
This offers the opportunity for Sogol, Monne and their colleagues to operate at an even higher level. “Together we now form one ‘pure play’ project management specialist for the real estate, infrastructure and clean energy sectors,” says Sogol. “If you look at our combined expertise, experience and global presence, we are a leader in the field of project and construction cost management.”
An exciting combination
The coming together of the businesses is a significant effort. “Worldwide, there are now over 22,000 people operating in 60 countries around the globe including Europe,” says Monne.
Monne and Sogol are both part of the Dutch Real Estate senior leadership team. Monne is head of cost and commercial management, while Sogol heads the Cities & Places sector.
“We manage projects for investors in areas such as office, mixed-use facilities, leisure and hospitality”, Sogol explains. “So that would include transformations, redevelopments or new construction of mixed-use buildings, offices and hotels: These are assets that add value to a city.”
Sitting on the costs
It is immediately an example in which the value of joining forces comes to the fore. In these types of projects, the teams collaborate and complement one another.
“At Turner & Townsend, we have been focusing on construction cost and commercial management for a long time,” Monne explains. “We can now support our new colleagues, so that we can provide customers with even more integrated services.”
“That is happening more and more in some projects,” Sogol adds, “including mixed-use projects of over 50,000 m2, and with homes, offices and catering. Previously, we only worked with external cost managers, but now we can tackle this together with our colleagues from Turner & Townsend in a truly integrated way.”
The best of both worlds
At the same time, this is just the beginning, indicates Sogol. “As the integration progresses, we continue to unlock new opportunities to deliver greater value to clients and experience how much better we can manage our clients’ investments.”
Monne believes we will have more capacity to execute even more major projects and programmes for a larger group of clients. “It opens up a world of opportunities to collaborate with a global leader like CBRE, whose integrated services and commercial real estate offering complement our own.”
Sogol explains that the vast majority of work CBRE does is ‘attached work’, “meaning we serve the customer from start to finish from various departments, and we will of course continue to do so.”
As part of the overall strategic partnership with CBRE, Turner & Townsend maintains operational independence and continues to deliver its services under the Turner & Townsend brand, while collaborating closely with CBRE.
“Additionally, Turner & Townsend can also enrich the service CBRE traditionally provides,” says Sogol, “such as drawing on the knowledge and capability of the infrastructure and energy and natural resources teams at Turner & Townsend to provide innovative solutions for the network congestion problems – something that many of our collective real estate clients struggle with.”
The highest level
The success of an integration does not only depend on a synergy of services provided, but also the cultural match between organisations. “You can already see that we both have a similar purpose and shared values: collaborative, fun to work with and driven to achieve excellent outcomes on the most impactful projects and programmes.”
“Of course there are always differences, but in that you can also learn from each other,” Monne adds. “To encourage this, we organise Town Halls at a local level and have an initiative we call ‘coffee roulette’”. Participants are paired with a colleague to meet up for a coffee and an informal conversation. “You start with getting to know each other, and through doing that, it eventually becomes a regular catch-up.”
This progression of understanding mirrors the professional path both Monne and Sogol have pursued. “When I started at CBRE, I thought I would stay for five years at most,” Sogol remembers. “Now I’m here over a decade later, and in all that time I feel like I’ve never done the same thing twice – every project is different and there’s so much room for growth.”
“Now we’re entering a new chapter, as part of Turner & Townsend, with more opportunities to learn and create even more value for our clients together. That’s what drives us – delivering at the highest level for our clients and continuing to provide the excellent service that our clients expect.”
