Engel & Völkers, a leading service company specialised in the sale and rental of premium residential property, commercial real estate and yachts, has appointed César Latrilla as the new managing director of its Metropolitan Market Center (MMC) in Dubai, UAE.

The MMC is a joint venture between Engel & Völkers and the Dubai-based real estate developer Nakheel.

Both real estate companies are utilising this strategic partnership in pursuit of the same goal: to achieve a high market share in the brokerage of premium residential property in the Arab emirate in the shortest time possible.

In his new role, Latrilla will head up management of all operative business at the MMC, with particular focus on budget and personnel management, and the controlling of sales activities.

Latrilla has over 10 years of experience in the real estate profession. Amongst other ventures, he has been a project developer since 2003, said a statement from the company.

Prior to this, he has held various managerial positions in the hospitality industry over a period of 20 years such as the management of Husa Group hotels in Casablanca, Marrakesh (Morocco) and Barcelona, Valencia and Madrid (Spain). Subsequently, he was the general manager for five years at the Iberostar Hotels & Resorts in the Dominican Republic.

The international experience he gained through these executive roles in Morocco, Spain, the USA, the Caribbean and Egypt, gives César Latrilla excellent grounding for his new remit at the global property broker Engel & Völkers, said the company in its statement.

In addition to brand positioning for Engel & Völkers in Dubai, Latrilla will initially be concentrating his efforts on installing and expanding the team. A total of 250 sales advisors are due to be employed at the Engel & Völkers MMC in Dubai by the end of 2015.

On the appointment, Sven Odia, the co-CEO of Engel & Völkers, said: "I am very pleased that we’ve been able to secure such a well-versed industry expert and outstanding managerial personality as Latrilla for this key position."

"In appointing him as managing director of our MMC, we are underlining just how important the establishing of Engel & Völkers in Dubai is to us. We see vast potential for our brand in this market," he added.-TradeArabia News Service