Colliers Houston has announced that Patrick Duffy will be stepping down as president of Colliers Houston this summer and that Danny Rice, currently managing director of Colliers in Orlando, Tampa Bay and Southwest Florida will be replacing Duffy. Duffy held that position prior to moving to Houston in 2009.
“Danny is the perfect replacement for me”, Duffy said. “I hired Danny straight out of college in 2007 and he spent the first couple of years in GIS and technology support before moving to brokerage as an office landlord and tenant representative. He started in a company structure that I set up.”
Danny left Colliers to pursue several entrepreneurial real estate tech opportunities. Just prior to rejoining Colliers in 2018, he was the chief revenue officer at Xceligent, one of the leading providers of commercial real estate information and research at the time. During Danny’s tenure, he grew from a local sales rep in Florida to quickly becoming regional vice president of sales for the Florida markets and then executive vice president of national accounts before becoming chief revenue officer. Danny oversaw a team of nine regional VP’s, 60+ outside sales reps, 20+ inside sales reps and 20+ customer success and marketing professionals. He was also heavily involved in product and development efforts within the organization.
Duffy said, “I wasn’t in a big hurry to step down but had been thinking about proper timing and planning for the transition for a couple of years. I spoke with Danny frequently on Colliers business and also sent him training materials I had developed since leaving my old role in Florida. Danny and his wife have family in Dallas, and he mentioned that they had a long-term goal of moving here. I casually asked him if Houston was close enough and mentioned that I thought he was a perfect cultural and experience fit for taking over my job (when he was ready). Last year, he called me and said they had decided they were ready. After meeting with our board of directors for about six hours, our team agreed that he was the perfect candidate and to move forward with Danny.”
Duffy said he was much more focused on leaving the Houston office in good hands than perfect timing for his plans. He will remain at Colliers Houston in a brokerage role and focus on helping his relationships with their real estate issues and will remain a partner in the firm.
Duffy has had a long and successful career in commercial real estate since entering the industry in 1983 in the tech space. He was part of a team that developed the first CRM for the PC platform along with a full suite of database tools for commercial real estate prior to moving into a brokerage production and sales management role in 1985. He was responsible for managing and growing the firm that eventually became Colliers Tampa Bay, Colliers Orlando and Colliers SW Florida over the following 24 years.
When Duffy took over the leadership role in Houston in 2009, the firm had 36 producer/advisors. The firm has grown to be one of the largest commercial real estate companies in South East Texas with over 82 advisors, and 2022 transaction volume of roughly $3 billion. Revenue to the firm has increased over 550% since 2009.
“Our big focus has been on building a top-quality platform where our advisors can focus on exceeding our clients’ expectations. We have been more interested in culture and quality than size,” Duffy said. “The growth came mainly from our existing team talking to their friends in the industry about what a great team and environment we have built here.”
The top goal for the firm for the past 14 years has been to have happy people and maintain the culture of the organization. In 2015, the company took a survey developed by Michigan State University and provided by Steelcase, Inc. which was designed to show the current and desired cultures of a company. According to Steelcase, Colliers Houston was the first firm they had heard of to have a current and desired culture map that aligned.
Pat has had a wide range of “side” roles over the years. He helped start the retail platform at NAI in the late 80s and started the Colliers Retail Services (North America) platform where he served as chairman for over 15 years. He served as a member (and chairman) of the Colliers Managers Steering committee, the Board of Directors for Colliers USA and is the past chairman of the Colliers USA Board of Advisors. He won every award a manager could win when his firm was associated with NAI and has won every award for non-producers at Colliers including the Pinnacle Award for service, Manager of the Year, Tom Richardson Award (character) and others. He has also been awarded Most Admired CEO by the Houston Business Journal, Best Bosses from Real Estate Forum Magazine, Executive of the Year (REDnews), People’s Choice award (REDnews), named a Texas Real Estate Icon, and top Faculty award from CORENET.
“It has been a very good run for me. I love my career and am proud of what we have been able to accomplish in both Florida and here in Houston. The award that means the most to me is the number one Best Places to Work in the large company category in 2022,” Duffy concluded.
“We are excited about Danny taking the lead for our firm going forward,” said Bob Parsley, chairman of Colliers Houston. “We would have been happy with Pat running the company for another decade, but we are at a point where he wants to dial it back and bringing on an experienced, new leader with great focus and energy is just what we need to take Colliers to the next level.”
