Jack Elton, Senior Sales Director, Europe, Middle East, and Asia (EMEA) with JLL in London, England, has been selected by CRE Insight Journal as one of the 10 to Watch in commercial real estate. The CRE Insight Journal 10 to Watch program recognizes the commercial real estate industry’s top early career professionals and showcases how emerging professionals are shaping the real estate industry through a variety of career pathways.

Technology Driven Expertise

At JLL, Jack is the co-head of EMEA sales where he acts as the technology representative within business-wide development meetings, and he ensures that the company is thinking “tech-first” in client facing initiatives. He works tirelessly to deliver value to some of the largest occupiers, landlords, and investors globally, and works to ensure JLL brings the full value it has to offer to clients.

Jack is also a founding member of JLL’s Technology Taskforce, a group formed to drive technological innovations in key existing accounts.

“We’ve successfully integrated a number of our portfolio technology businesses into client portfolios, one key example being HVAC optimization across one client’s portfolio in which we delivered a 56-percent reduction in energy consumption,” Jack said. “As part of this initiative, we launched the Demystifying Tech series, with the goal being to educate our EMEA business on the impact and outcomes we can deliver by leveraging our suite of technology products and services.”

Jack graduated from the University of Reading in 2012 with a Bachelor of Science in Real Estate before embarking on a career of innovation, entrepreneurship, and mentorship.

A History of Mentorship

Jack is passionate about mentoring others, and he has continuously helped his team members to grow and thrive. He continues to coach his team members and peers around the globe into a wider, tech-first, mindset. His coaching and mentorship has brought value to his team, and he has found joy in watching team members expand their views of technology and real estate.

“One of the most satisfying accomplishments is coaching members of the sales organization to think in a holistic, commercial, and transformative way when it comes to addressing the key challenges that our clients face,” Jack said. “Going through this journey with them is immensely satisfying, diving into the depths of the discovery process and seeing the light flicker on when that person recognizes the importance of always being curious, and how to listen effectively so that they can not only decipher the customer’s pain, but quantify it, prioritize it, and paint a new reality in the customer’s mind.”

Entrepreneurship and Innovation

Prior to joining JLL, Jack served as EMEA Enterprise Sales Director for PRODA LTD, a firm leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning to capture and analyze complex CRE data, where he led the market strategy for the EMEA region.

Jack has a history of entrepreneurship and innovation, founding Jobs4ReadingStudents, an online marketplace to assist students in finding temporary work, as a student at University of Reading. After graduating, he founded PRIDEBACK, an ecommerce business selling bespoke clothing, and he was part of the 2013 cohort of the New Entrepreneurs Foundation in London. In addition, he was one the developers of Hometree, a home management service in the United Kingdom (UK), where he was the second employee and accounted for over 50-percent of their revenue in the first year, and 280-percent year-over-year revenue growth as the UK Sale Director and Head of Sales Operations.

Throughout a career of innovation, Jack is looking towards the future of commercial real estate: a future focused on how we interact with the world, and how environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations affect us all.

“We’re not quite living in a fully virtual world and because of that, the real estate industry plays a monumental part in the way that we all experience, interact, and think about our spaces, communities, and environment, and therefore how we live, work, and play,” Jack said.

“One could argue that almost everything is the built environment, and you have to ask yourself, how much does one’s environment impact their own reality in terms of fulfilment and happiness? I would argue that the answer is ‘a whole lot!’ We as the real estate industry therefore have an outright duty to deliver a positive impact in today’s, and tomorrow’s, world.”

“Commercially, there has been a seismic shift in the focus towards ESG, how we as an industry deliver it, and who the right people are to captain that ship. There is also a greater onus on the experience that we deliver as corporations fight to bring people back to the office, but also a willingness to adapt to a changing world and how corporate real estate plays a positive part in this. Real estate is still an enormous line in the P&L for the majority of businesses, and historically it’s either been a cost center to deliver a place of work, or it’s been an asset in which to trade or leverage. More recently those lines have blurred, and I believe this is positive. The convergence of a more strategic line of thinking has made real estate more than bricks and mortar, and this is already impacting people, communities, and the environment positively.”

CRE Insight Journal 10 to Watch is sponsored by

Read about all of the 10 to Watch class of 2023 award recipients and the positive impact they are making through their company, community service, real estate associations, and more. Interested in learning more about next year’s 10 to Watch program or applying for recognition? Complete this short form.

Earn recognition through CRE Insight Journal’s other awards programs:

CRE Insight Journal’s company and property awards program is now accepting applications. Learn more about the Excellence in Collaborative Service; Excellence in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; Excellence in Environmental Sustainability; and Excellence in Tenant Care awards with this link. There is no fee to enter, and the application deadline is Dec. 13, 2023.

To stay up to date on news and resources such as this and other topics of importance to the real estate industry, subscribe to the free CRE Insight Journal Newsletter using this link. Learn more about CRE Insight Journal’s awards programs with this link.