Key Real Estate Exec Leaving to Help His Industry Go Tech

Alan Beaudette, a key executive in Orange County commercial real estate circles, is resigning after 21 years at CB Richard Ellis Inc. in Newport Beach to craft a business strategy for incorporating new technology in the industry over the next decade.

Beaudette, 43, the company’s senior managing officer, said he first will complete a master’s thesis on the subject this year at Pepperdine University. His resignation at CB Richard Ellis takes effect June 22.

He is examining the effects of information, technology and culture on an industry that has been slow to embrace the Internet. Just as computers have reshaped securities trading, Beaudette said, they will change commercial real estate soon. Unless the industry takes a leadership role, he said, it runs the risk of losing control.

“Unless the industry takes a hard look at itself, it could be blindsided much like the securities industry was,” Beaudette said.

During Beaudette’s five years as senior managing officer, the Newport Beach office has become the most profitable in the company’s chain, generating annual revenues of $65 million.

Beaudette will remain as president of the Orange County chapter of the National Assn. of Industrial and Office Properties. His tenure in the nation’s largest chapter, representing more than 100 companies that own or manage 115 million square feet of space, ends later this year.

He said he hopes to determine his next career move by the time he graduates in December.