Key Takeaways
- • Mark Gabbay has stepped down as CEO of LaSalle Investment Management, an manager with roughly $87bn in assets under management, departing at the turn of the month (late October 2026).
- • Gabbay led the firm through the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent market downturn, according to PERE.
- • In a signing-off guest commentary written exclusively for PERE, Gabbay says his biggest challenge at LaSalle was organizational rather than market-driven.
- • Gabbay argues the firm did not need a 'wartime leader,' signaling a view that the organization's needs were structural rather than crisis-driven.
Summary
Mark Gabbay, former chief executive of LaSalle Investment Management, has departed the real estate investment manager, which oversees about $87bn in assets under management, according to PERE. His departure took effect at the turn of the month, and the publication's report on his exit comes in the form of a signing-off guest commentary he wrote shortly afterward.
During his tenure, Gabbay led the firm through the COVID-19 pandemic and the market downturn that followed. In the commentary, he characterizes his most significant challenge not as a market or crisis-management problem but as an organizational one. The headline of the piece, which he frames as a rejection of the idea that the firm needed a 'wartime leader,' reflects his position that LaSalle's requirements during that period were institutional rather than emergency-driven.
The commentary is a first-person account from the departing executive, and the figures and characterizations should be read as his own perspective. The source material available for this report is limited to the PERE article and its publisher summary, so further detail on the succession, the firm's strategic direction, or the reasons behind the departure is not available in this reporting.
During his tenure, Gabbay led the firm through the COVID-19 pandemic and the market downturn that followed. In the commentary, he characterizes his most significant challenge not as a market or crisis-management problem but as an organizational one. The headline of the piece, which he frames as a rejection of the idea that the firm needed a 'wartime leader,' reflects his position that LaSalle's requirements during that period were institutional rather than emergency-driven.
The commentary is a first-person account from the departing executive, and the figures and characterizations should be read as his own perspective. The source material available for this report is limited to the PERE article and its publisher summary, so further detail on the succession, the firm's strategic direction, or the reasons behind the departure is not available in this reporting.
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