Small beginnings to the biggest

After several months of groundwork the merger between CB Richard Ellis and the Insignia Financial Group was finally sealed last month. Warsaw's CB RE watched intently as the terms of agreement were being negotiated in the USA "I always imagined that I would go on working for a modest player confined to its market niche," admits Nigel Wade, Managing Director of CB RE in Warsaw. "I had no idea that one day we'd be part of a mighty corporation, emerging out of CB Richard Ellis and Insignia." Eve of growthIt all started with Jan Chudzynski (currently an independent property advisor), who came to Poland with the Dautons Soar real estate company to valuate a number of industrial units in the late eighties. He created the Dautons Gerald Eve branch, which in turn spawned Gerald Eve International which as well as Jan Chudzynski, employed Włodzimierz Kocon (now of the Von der Heyden Group) and Teresa Błazejewska (still with CB Richard Ellis). In 1994, the team was joined by John Palmer, now