_Meet our Beijing Management: An interview with Katherine Lu

Katherine Lu joined the Knight Frank Beijing Office in China as Managing Director in May 2020. She takes charge of business operations and manages our domestic corporate occupier business in Beijing. We took this opportunity to speak with Katherine and understand more about her job.

November 02, 2020

Can you share some of your recent successes since you joined us 5 months ago?

I have enjoyed working with the Beijing team since I joined Knight Frank in May.

With all eyes on unicorns and tech companies these days, I am fortunate to be able to leverage my relevant network and expand our client pool in this sector through collaborations with Knight Frank professional service teams globally.

We made some successes recently for Chinese occupiers include:

We signed a framework service contract with a Chinese internet IoT company. We served this company for three overseas office setup transactions within two months of appointment. We are serving some Chinese hi-tech companies for both mainland China and overseas market expansions. The services cover transaction and office fit-out project management services.

A very impressive case is a referral to Knight Frank Moscow team. This is a flagship store setup and Knight Frank Moscow retail team sourced a long list of qualified solutions in a short period of time. The team was eventually appointed for leasing services in the Moscow city centre.

I am incredibly lucky that our Beijing team is highly capable and detail oriented, and our teams in other countries are very professional and supportive. The team is highly devoted, and I am pleased with the successes we have achieved so far.

What are the biggest opportunities you see in your market?

I believe we still have a lot of potential in the Beijing and other China markets. During and after COVID-19, there has been a handful of very active occupiers in the office leasing space. Most of them are domestic companies who prefer working with professionals that can swiftly take action and offer proactive leasing suggestions. I look forward to making more deal successes in the coming future.

How is covid-19 affecting you and your work?

I started working from home since February 2020 for 3 months. At the beginning, I was a little lost as this is the first time I cannot go to the office and meet people in person. However, the good thing is that I was able to spend more time at home with my family. This period will be one of the best memories for us.

I made a big decision to join Knight Frank during the COVID-19 period. COVID-19 has given me more time to think about my career and that facilitated my decision. The impact to business is that lots of tenants changed their plans and we had lost some opportunities serving potential clients. However, we quickly changed our strategy plan and achieved exceed our annual revenue goal.

What are your favourite hobbies?

I like reading, travelling, and handcrafting although I am not very skilful at it (it's the effort that counts).

For more information, please contact:

Katherine Lu

katherine.lu@cn.knightfrank.com