JLL brings ex-EY’er Selina Short as CEO for Australia and New Zealand

Commercial real estate advisory and management firm JLL has brought in former EY senior leader Selina Short as its new A/NZ CEO as the company looks to rebound from recent troubles.

Short crosses to JLL as Australia and New Zealand chief executive in May after more than a decade and a half at Ernst & Young, where she has led the Big Four’s built environment & resources practice and more recently served as clients & industries managing partner.

JLL, which has been plagued by a series of misconduct claims and counter-suits in recent times, will be hoping the appointment of an outsider can restore its reputation. Short takes over Luke Billiau, who has served as interim chief since the sacking of Dan Kernaghan.

“I’m excited to be joining JLL at a pivotal time for the Australian and New Zealand markets,” Short said, in a rather short statement. “JLL has outstanding talent, and I’m looking forward to working alongside its teams across the business as they continue to deliver innovative solutions that shape the future of real estate for our clients.”

Short joined EY in 2009 following a degree in economics at Macquarie University, since complemented by a commerce masters with the University of Sydney. She was appointed built environment & resources practice lead in 2019, before being elevated to EY’s Oceania’s executive team as clients & industries managing partner five years later.

In addition, Short is presently a director of the Green Building Council of Australia and member of the Department of Industry, Science and Resource’s tech-focused Building 4.0 Cooperative Research Centre advisory board. She was also a former director of the NSW Government’s Landcom Board, and has contributed to EY’s Net Zero Centre research.

“Selina brings an exceptional depth of knowledge in shaping the future of the built environment and driving outstanding outcomes and value for clients,” said JLL’s London-based capital markets CEO Richard Bloxam. “This is an important step in strengthening the operations of our A/NZ business and bringing tremendous global and domestic insights to our clients.”

Bloxam also extended his gratitude to Billiau for “providing much-needed stability for our teams and clients while driving our shared values of teamwork, ethics and excellence” as interim chief, while naturally making no mention of Kernaghan, who served as A/NZ CEO since 2023 but is now suing the company after being unceremoniously sacked in August over alleged leadership failures.

He is not the only one, with at least three other employees terminated due to cultural issues and mismanagement of complaints, such as that agents had hosted clients in a Melbourne strip club, currently taking the US real estate giant to court. Notably, Short has been a member of the workplace gender equality organisation Champions of Change Coalition since 2015.