Who are JLL's decision-makers?
JLL's top decision-makers include Christian Ulbrich and Kelly Howe, with business-unit, technology, finance, procurement, legal, security, and compliance leaders involved depending on the purchase.
- CEO
- Christian Ulbrich
- CFO/key exec
- Kelly Howe
- Founded
- 1783 / 1999 merger
- Employees
- Approximately 111,000
- HQ
- Chicago, IL
- Prior exit/Notable
- Public company
- Christian UlbrichChief Executive Officer and PresidentCEO since 2016Leads global strategy and the executive board.
- Kelly HoweChief Financial OfficerCFO since July 2025Leads finance and public-company reporting.
- Karen BrennanCEO, Leasing AdvisoryAppointed 2025Leads a major global leasing business.
- Sanjay RishiCEO, Work Dynamics, AmericasExecutive leaderLeads occupier services and workplace transformation.
Who leads JLL?
Christian Ulbrich leads JLL as Chief Executive Officer and President. The leadership bench also includes Kelly Howe (Chief Financial Officer), Karen Brennan (CEO, Leasing Advisory), Sanjay Rishi (CEO, Work Dynamics, Americas).
The strongest outreach starts with the executive sponsor for the business problem, then maps finance and technology stakeholders before procurement begins.
Who actually makes buying decisions at JLL?
Strategic purchases usually involve the business-unit owner, CFO organization, procurement, legal, security, and IT architecture. In regulated or transaction-heavy workflows, compliance and risk teams may have veto power.
A seller should identify whether the project is growth, risk, infrastructure, data, or operations led, because each path has a different executive sponsor and proof standard.
How is JLL organized as it scales?
JLL combines corporate functions with business units that own products, channels, markets, or regulated operations. Central teams set security, finance, data, and procurement standards, while local or product teams own adoption and outcome metrics.
That structure rewards land-and-expand motions only when the first deployment produces measurable improvement and can be repeated across offices, channels, or portfolios.
As of June 2026.Sources:JLL 2025 Form 10-KJLL global leadershipJLL leadership appointments
JLL — frequently asked questions
