Industry veteran joins Knight Frank’s Global Occupier Strategy & Solutions team from Cushman & Wakefield
Knight Frank has appointed James Maddock as a partner within its Global Occupier Strategy & Solutions team.
He joins from Cushman & Wakefield, where he has spent his entire 35-year career.
In his new role, Maddock will work closely alongside Tim Armstrong, Knight Frank’s global head of Occupier Strategy & Solutions, alongside the senior regional leadership, including Philipp Ueberschaer and Richard Proctor, the department’s heads in the EMEA and UK regions respectively.
He began his career at DTZ in 1990, joining the European board following the firm’s merger with Cushman & Wakefield in 2015.
Most recently, Maddock served as EMEA head of occupier services, where he was responsible for building and scaling the EMEA Occupier Services platform. His has experience in multiple areas of corporate real estate strategy and delivery, including integrated service delivery models, portfolio optimisation, and workplace innovation.
Maddock was also previously served as chair of CoreNet UK, the principal occupier association, for a two-year term.
William Beardmore-Gray, senior partner and group chair at Knight Frank, said: “James is a highly respected industry leader with an unparalleled network and depth of occupier expertise. His appointment underscores our long-term commitment to building a market-leading Global Occupier platform, which we see as a critical growth engine as occupier requirements become more complex, global and strategically driven.”
Tim Armstrong, global head of Occupier Strategy & Solutions at Knight Frank, added: “As occupier requirements become increasingly sophisticated, this is the ideal moment to strengthen our global leadership team. James brings 35 years of outstanding experience and an exceptional track record, and his arrival further enhances our ability to deliver innovative and integrated solutions for clients. Leveraging data and AI will be fundamental to these solutions—enabling smarter insights, predictive analytics, and automation that transform occupier strategies. Working closely with our regional leaders, he will play a pivotal role in accelerating growth and transforming how occupiers extract value from their real estate and workplaces.”
Tim Robinson, head of UK Commercial at Knight Frank, said: “Growing the UK Occupier platform is fundamental to our UK and European strategies and one of our Commercial ‘accelerators’ – areas of our business that are targeted for significant investment by the firm. James will be a major asset to our Occupier focussed business, strengthening our ability to deliver a truly best-in-class service to clients across the UK, mainland Europe and, ultimately, globally.”
James Maddock added: “I am delighted to be joining Knight Frank’s world-class team at such a pivotal moment for the occupier market. The firm’s partnership culture and commitment to collaboration strongly resonate with me. I look forward to working across the UK, Europe and global platform to enhance client experience, deliver meaningful outcomes, and support the continued growth of the business in an increasingly complex environment.”