Tony Lombardo to succeed Steve McCann as Lendlease group CEO

Tony Lombardo to succeed Steve McCann as Lendlease group CEO
Tony Lombardo

Lendlease chairman Michael Ullmer announced that Steve McCann will retire as group chief executive officer (CEO) and managing director.

Lendlease has appointed Tony Lombardo, currently chief executive officer Asia, as group chief executive officer.

McCann will retire from the Lendlease board on May 31, 2021 following a 16-year career with the group including more than 12 years as group chief executive officer and managing director. Tony Lombardo will commence his new role when McCann retires from Lendlease.

“Steve has played an instrumental role in spearheading Lendlease’s transformation, focusing on our integrated business model in targeted global gateway cities. Under Steve’s leadership, the group’s global development pipeline has grown to more than $110 billion including twenty-two major urbanisation projects across ten of the world’s most iconic cities. Lendlease is now recognised as a global leader in transforming major precincts into places people truly want to be. Steve’s passion, intellect and leadership as well as his unwavering commitment towards operating in a safe and sustainable way have left a powerful legacy. The onset of COVID-19 delayed Steve’s planned retirement as he led the group’s response to the pandemic. I’d like to thank Steve for his commitment to Lendlease during this challenging period,” said Ullmer.

“Tony will commence in his new role as the group pursues its revised strategy focusing on leveraging its competitive edge in the development and delivery of large-scale, mixed-use urbanisation projects and growing the Investments platform. Tony’s time as CEO Asia, as well as prior roles including group CFO, make him eminently qualified to lead Lendlease into the future,” he added.

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McCann said: “It has been a tremendous privilege to lead Lendlease for more than 12 years. I’d like to thank every one of our people around the world for their dedication in delivering our projects safely and sustainably on behalf of our customers, investment partners and the communities in which we operate. I am very pleased that the board has selected Tony as my
successor. His appointment reinforces the outstanding bench strength we have built in senior management at Lendlease. I have worked closely with Tony for 13 years and am confident in the future of Lendlease in his hands.”

Tony Lombardo said: “I’m honoured to be selected by the board to succeed Steve as Lendlease group CEO and managing director. I’ve had the privilege of working closely with Steve during my career at Lendlease and he leaves the group in a strong position with great future momentum. I look forward to working with the Board, management and our 11,000-strong team globally to deliver positive outcomes for all of our stakeholders.”

Tony Lombardo has more than 25 years’ experience working across real estate development, investment management, finance, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and strategy in Australia and internationally.

Lombardo joined Lendlease in 2007 as group head of strategy and M&A where he led a number of initiatives including refocusing the group’s overall business strategy. In 2011, he was appointed group chief financial officer and played a key role in enhancing the flexibility of the group’s capital structure via a stapled structure as well as significantly broadening its funding and banking relationships. He also implemented a range of people focused initiatives including creation of the Young Indigenous Pathways program, which provides mentoring opportunities for young Indigenous students.

In 2016, Tony was appointed chief executive officer Asia based in Singapore. As part of resetting Lendlease Asia’s growth strategy, Tony spearheaded a number of major initiatives to drive future growth. Recent successes include the completion of Singapore’s S$3.7 billion Paya Lebar Quarter mixed-use development, establishment of a US$1 billion data centres joint venture with a large institutional investor and the successful listing of S$1 billion global LREIT on the Singapore Exchange.

Prior to joining Lendlease, Tony spent almost 10 years at GE with responsibilities across a number of functional disciplines including strategy, M&A and finance for both GE Capital and GE Corporate. Tony commenced his career at KPMG where he worked for more than four years.

Tony holds a degree in Accounting and Finance from RMIT University and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia.