Avison Young adds Martin Jepil as VP of enterprise architecture
Avison Young, a global commercial real estate services firm, has welcomed Martin Jepil as a principal and global vice president of enterprise architecture. He will be based in the firm’s Toronto headquarters.
Jepil brings more than 20 years of IT leadership experience, and will focus on simplifying Avison Young’s technology stack and connecting the firm’s various enterprise systems. He will also work on engineering and delivering technology solutions and products that help the company’s clients improve their commercial real estate outcomes.
“Martin is a fantastic addition to our Global IT and Technology team as we pave the road to simplifying IT acquisition and system integration,” said Mike Hart, principal and CIO at Avison Young. “In this newly created role, Martin will demonstrate his strong track record of connecting strategic thinking with technology execution to achieve excellence and deliver bottom line results.”
Jepil previously spent three years at DXC Technology, where he was chief technologist and global head of enterprise product engineering – providing IT strategy and CIO advisory services in application value management, portfolio optimization, lifecycle management, and core modernization to large enterprise clients.
Before that he spent seven years at predecessor firm Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), where he was CTO and oversaw the Canadian market in client sectors such as financial services, energy, life sciences, and government. During his tenure, Jepil increased revenue and profitability and drove 50% growth in client engagements.
Before joining HPE, Jepil spent five years at IT consultancy CGI, where he was director of consulting & enterprise architecture, overseeing a 20-person client architect team and a $4 million budget.
He holds a BS in computer science from Caltech.
“Having previously worked with Avison Young as a consultant, I am drawn to the firm’s people-first culture and its commitment to innovation and technology,” said Jepil. “Avison Young has always been at the forefront of cutting-edge technology to help elevate offerings for the commercial real estate sector.”
The commercial real estate sector has been heavily impacted by a Covid-19-driven shift to remote work, as well as the pandemic’s ravaging of bricks-and-mortar retail and hospitality. Though commercial real estate analysts say many firms are eager to return to physical spaces – echoing the repeated promises of a “revenge travel” phenomenon from travel and hospitality insiders – there will likely be a permanent decrease in demand for commercial real estate.
On the retail end, consumers will retain their increased preference for ecommerce as more physical stores and malls slide into obsolescence. Landlords and managers will have to find ways to convert such property into alternate uses.
On the office space end, many companies will opt for the massive capital savings of a fully-remote model, while more still will pursue a hybrid-model with a vastly reduced office footprint.
Commercial real estate management and brokerage firms such as Avison Young last year decided to diversify with the launch of real estate consulting practices. Avison Young’s consulting practice offers strategic planning in needs and portfolio analysis, corporate occupancy strategy, and real estate valuation. The practice also provides real estate-focused market and feasibility studies, due diligence, and realty tax appeals services.
The addition of Jepil hints at further forays into industry-specific IT consulting, which has seen robust demand during the pandemic downturn.
Rival company Colliers International, meanwhile, expanded into engineering consulting with the acquisition of the 1,000-person team at New Jersey-based Maser Consulting. The firm also last year launched a strategy and consulting group.
