DTZ’s John Forrester faces the biggest test of his successful career in his new role as chief executive of the global property services firm.

Regarded as one of the best office agents of our generation, ‘big John’ will have to combine his regular day job –  advising many of the UK’s prop cos on their development and leasing strategies – with the much tougher task of steering DTZ into ‘the next stage’ of the cycle.

John understands the size of his challenge and one of his first duties was to recently reward the incredible loyalty of over 120 key staff with promotion.

Morale within DTZ had been at an all time low after almost four painful years of a property recession during which time the firm seemed to limp from one crisis to another, with redundancies and pay freezes.

In one fell swoop he has given the staff (and shareholders) something to believe in again. While at the same time it makes it much harder for predatory rivals to headhunt these star performers.

A corporate takeover is still a possibility but if it doesn’t happen at least with John at the helm DTZ has a renewed confidence.