• James Huang has been named managing director of commercial real estate at RESAAS Services. Huang had served since 2020 as president at eXPp Commercial, where he grew the company’s commercial real estate division. He has also served as president of Sperry Commercial Global Affiliates, leading the company’s expansion across 20 American states and multiple countries. He also spent several years at commercial real estate brokerage firm Marcus & Millichap and served as a vice-president at Morgan Stanley. He has been a member of the RESAAS advisory board since March 2022 and served as president of the Asian Real Estate Association of America since 2020. Vancouver-based RESAAS is an award-winning technology firm that brings real estate brokerages and agencies under one global, centralized industry platform. About 600,000 agents in 160 countries have access to RESAAS data.

• David Tweedie and David Holden have been appointed co-heads of RBC Capital Markets’ real estate investment banking business. The new co-heads are responsible for driving results in real estate capital markets as well as debt and property brokerage operations. Tweedie was promoted after spending three years as head of the unit’s Canadian brokerage practice. He has 20 years of commercial real estate advisory experience and has spent the past 17 years with RBC. Under his guidance, RBC brokered the $1.16-billion sale of Toronto’s Royal Bank Plaza to Spanish billionaire Amancio Ortega on behalf of Oxford Properties Group and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. Holden has signed on for a second stint with RBC, where he has spent most of his career. He most recently spent two years as a BMO Capital Markets managing director. Before then, he served as a vice-president with Oxford Properties.

• George Lewis has joined the board of James Richardson & Sons. During a 30-year career with the Royal Bank of Canada, Lewis gained extensive experience in global capital markets and investment management. He retired as RBC’s wealth management and insurance group head in 2015; since then, he has served on many corporate and non-profit group boards. He currently sits on the Legal & General Group, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, and AOG Group boards. Winnipeg-based James Richardson & Sons is a private, family-owned and operated corporation involved in global agriculture and food processing, as well as real estate, energy exploration and marketing, financial services, insurance, freight transportation and logistics. Founded in 1857, the company has assets and operations across Canada, the U.S. and Europe.

• Sutton Group has appointed James Innis as president and chief operating officer. He will lead Vancouver-based Sutton’s new growth, technology and capital market initiatives, said the company in a news release. Innis has experience in real estate, financial services and capital markets in Canada, the UK and Germany. He most recently served as managing director at R-LABS. He has also also led the investment, and served on the board of, Assembly, an off-site pre-fabricated mass timber housing company that has grown into a national leader.

• Ahmed Helmi has joined Realty One Flagship as the real estate brokerage firm’s new vice-president of sales in Toronto. He moved to Realty One from Royal LePage in Mississauga, Ont., where he served for about 14 years, most recently as managing broker and coach. A licensed realtor since 2001, he previously served as vice-president of sales and operations at Johnston & Daniel in Toronto. That was one of several executive positions which he held with the firm during a seven-and-a-half-year tenure.

• Restaurant Brands International has hired Patrick Siewert as its senior advisor in the Asia-Pacific region. Siewert works out of Hong Kong and will advise Toronto-based RBI on its Asia-Pacific business, including new master franchise partnerships and top talent recruitment. Siewert is a former Coca-Cola chief operating officer and Carlyle Group managing director, covering Asia for both firms. RBI is one of the world’s largest quick-service restaurant franchisors. The company has about 4,500 restaurants in Asia, including more than 2,300 in China.

Get Ready for Canada Kick-off

Connect CRE will hold its inaugural Canada Kick-off Event in Toronto on June 11. This will be Connect’s first commercial real estate industry conference in Canada. Panelists will include Syl Apps, managing director and co-country head for Hines; Lindsay Brand, chief investment officer at Concert Properties; Mark Kenney, CEO of Canadian Apartment Properties REIT; and, Marie-France Benoit, Avison Young’s director of Canadian market intelligence. Come and gain insights from industry leaders on such matters as buyer sentiment amid a lower interest-rate environment, cross-border commercial real estate transaction trends, and investors’ outlook for 2024 and beyond. Register today.