As Regional President of the Southwest, Robert Thornburgh is responsible for expanding Cushman & Wakefield’s strategic growth in the region, helping our people rise higher, advocating for forward-looking changes to our industry, and recruiting the industry’s leading professionals to the team.

Robert’s highly successful and respected career stems from 30 years of faithful service to the industry, his clients and community. His breadth and depth of experience in commercial real estate are the direct result of his focus on integrity and a transformational, service-oriented style of leadership.

He has been consistently recognized across the commercial real estate industry for his emphasis on innovation and passion to help others achieve their goals. In 2020, 2022 and 2024 he was honored as a “Best Boss in the Industry” by ALM Media.

Robert began building an early foundation for a career path in real estate working with R3 Investment Group in the 1990’s.

During much of his professional career, he served as the CEO at Heger Industrial, a prominent regional real estate firm with a 60-year legacy in the Southern California market. In 2017, the company merged with Kidder Mathews. As part of the merger, Robert joined the company’s executive leadership team as Regional President of Brokerage where he helped to expand the firm’s presence across the West Coast.

More recently, Robert served as the CEO of SIOR Global, the leading industrial and office organization in the world, with over 4,000 professionals across 50 countries. Robert was widely recognized for helping drive SIOR’s increased relevance, visibility, and growth to new heights during his tenure.

He proudly holds 4 of the most respected designations within the commercial real estate industry – SIOR, CCIM, CPM, and FRICS. This is a distinction that less than 1 percent of all global commercial real estate practitioners maintain.