| With a tenure that stretches back 32 years, Lloyd Cooper has been the city’s top sales producer for over a decade and stood among Canada’s National Top Ten salespeople since 1994. His team’s portfolio includes some of the largest and most complex transactions in Canada, covering all asset types and user groups. Annually, he completes over 100 deals, averaging two million square feet.
Lloyd is an active member of numerous real estate association groups, is frequently quoted in the media and industry publications, and regularly participates as a speaker at real estate events. A Graduate of McGill’s Faculty of Law, Lloyd has been a member of the Quebec Bar since 1982 holding both Civil and Common law degrees. In 1985, he earned an MBA from the Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario and attained the Master of Corporate Real Estate (MCR) designation in 2007. Read below to see what drives a veteran top producer like Lloyd. |
| What year did you join Cushman & Wakefield, in what office, and what role? |
| I joined Royal LePage Commercial in 1985 out of the UWO Business School. Initially, I interviewed for a position in the Toronto office but they didn’t think I would make it there so they suggested that I go to Montreal; the rest is history! |
| What are the biggest changes you’ve seen happen to the way business is done? |
| Our clients are smarter and more demanding. There’s far less reliance on the old boys’ network and the four-martini lunch and much more attention to detail and innovative solutions. We are also pitching in a more competitive environment so the competition is tougher. Increasingly, clients are looking for fee sharing and discounting.
Describe some high points in your career. I had the opportunity of learning from mentors and peers such as Seymour Brock and Bill Moore who instilled in me a strong work ethic combined with great people skills and street smarts — the foundation to my practice. I have been fortunate to hit many of my career goals: consistent high-deal volume; largest deals in the Montreal market, including office and industrial transactions; hitting Top Ten the first time and then for the twentieth time; being Number One in Canada the first time and then doing it three times; making it into the Canadian Hall of Fame, and; being appointed Vice Chairman. |
| How would you briefly describe yourself? |
| I am a ‘serial networker,’ constantly attending industry and corporate events, joining every relevant organization, and getting every designation. It could be because I have FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). |
| If you could have dinner with any one person, living or dead, who would he/she be, and why? |
| Sam Zell — a brilliant real estate tactician and philanthropist. |
| What have you liked about working for Cushman & Wakefield, and how does the firm differentiate from the competition? |
| The firm has always felt like a small, intimate organization, even though it’s actually very large. We’re like a tight family though this may change somewhat given our rapid growth. |
| What are some of the secrets to your personal success? |
| Hard work, constantly on, attention to detail, continuous education, 24-7 networking. |
| What’s one or two things that many of your colleagues would not know about you? |
| I have three kids, have been married for 26 years to the same woman, love to travel, am a foodie (why I have a weight problem), and really like yoga! |
| What do you see as becoming the biggest drivers of change for clients as we move forward? |
| Technology is going to be the biggest challenge to the real estate industry and we are going to have to stay ahead of it, embrace it, and use it to our advantage. Companies are trying to do more with less space and infrastructure, but that is ok if our firm is leading the charge. What goes around comes around: firms such as IBM that promoted ‘work from home’ are now bringing back employees to the office, while using WeWork at the same time as part of their occupancy strategy. |
| What advice do you offer young people getting into the business today? |
| Get into the business for the right reasons. Real estate is not a quick get rich scheme. It is hard work. Young people must be highly educated and driven to succeed and strive for excellence. There is no middle ground. It is a long-term business requiring a wide skill set, tenacity, self-motivation, and a hunger for success and money because that’s what drives our entire business at the end of the day! |