Joana Fonseca, new head of JLL Portugal Strategic Consultancy & Research department
The real estate consultant JLL is restructuring the top management of the Corporate Solutions area, having promoted Maria Empis, eight years in the company, the director of this line of business that aggregates several departments. Following this change, the consultant hired Joana Fonseca to assume the leadership of the Strategic Consultancy & Research Department, previously directed by Maria Empis.
An area of special strategic importance at a time when companies are facing profound transformational challenges in their work models, the Corporate Solutions center is part of a multidisciplinary team that focuses on maximizing the value of corporate properties, helping organizations to make the most of their assets they occupy and hold. Also supporting investors and promoters in the definition and implementation of their strategies in the national territory, the consultancy's Corporate Solutions pillar includes the departments of Strategic Consultancy & Research, Design Strategy, Workplace Consulting, Energy & Sustainability Services and Project & Development Services.
«If before, real estate was already a strategic asset for companies and for their productivity, nowadays they assume an even greater importance. In addition to the challenges of technological transformation and sustainability, profound changes have been added to the way we work and live our day-to-day lives. These were trends already underway that became more widespread with the pandemic and that radically change the way we relate to the physical space as occupants, users or owners. This has a huge impact on the strategic role that real estate assets have for companies and, consequently, also for developers and investors», begins by commenting Maria Empis, Head of Corporate Solutions.
And she adds: «The Corporate Solutions team is totally focused on obtaining the maximum value from the real estate portfolios for its clients, whether they are occupants, owners or investors. And we do it today in a matrix that has to combine sustainability, digital transformation and new trends in work and consumption, in a dynamic view of real estate. For this reason, our Re-Generation service has had excellent results and a growing demand. It is an integrated solution that trains multidisciplinary teams to work on each property, with a view to adapting it to new trends with agile, innovative and sustainable solutions».
Joining the consultant in 2013 to head the Research Department, Maria Empis has also accumulated, since 2015, the Strategic Consulting department, serving as Head of Strategic Consultancy & Research until taking on this new challenge. With a degree in Civil Engineering from Universidade Nova de Lisboa, the new head of Corporate Solutions has a 20-year career in the real estate sector, working with nationally and internationally renowned clients such as Sonae, Apollo Asset Management, AXA IM, Goldman Sachs, Nexity, Lonestar, HIG Capital or Roundhill.
Joana Fonseca joins JLL to perform the position previously held by Maria Empis, assuming the direction of the Department of Strategic Consultancy & Research. Also with more than two decades of experience in real estate and a solid experience and deep knowledge of the market, Joana Fonseca has developed her work related to strategic consulting and research. She has a degree in Territory Engineering and a master's degree in Urbanism and Territorial Management, both from Instituto Superior Técnico, and a postgraduate degree in Management and Real Estate Evaluation from ISEG. She has been a member of RICS since 2009, being part of the Board in Portugal, since last year, and is one of the few members of this institution in the faculty of Planning and Development in Portugal.
In relation to the new challenge, Joana Fonseca, reveals to be «very motivated for the new functions, as it is an area that is crucial to understand the specificities of each real estate asset and to be able to support the design of the most suitable strategies to maximize its value. In addition, they are support areas that are transversal to all business lines and that assume a very important role for the company's performance», comments the new Head of Strategic Consultancy & Research from JLL
