CBRE Group Inc. of Los Angeles announced late Tuesday that Chief Executive Brett White would retire at the end of the year. He will be succeeded by the company’s president, Robert Sulentic.

Sulentic, 55, joined the company in 2006 with the acquisition of Trammell Crow Co., where he was chief executive. He has been CBRE’s president since 2009, and until 2010 also served as chief financial officer during the credit crisis and recession.

He earlier oversaw the company’s Europe, Middle East, and Africa arm, its development and services business and its operations in the Asia/Pacific region.

White, 52, has been with CBRE, the world’s largest commercial real estate services company, for nearly 30 years and became chief executive in 2005. White joined CBRE’s predecessor company, Coldwell Banker Commercial, as a sales trainee in 1984. He will continue to serve on CBRE’s board after his retirement, the company said late Tuesday.

“In the early 1990’s, our then-CEO Jim Didion boldly envisioned CBRE becoming the world’s ‘preeminent, vertically-integrated, globally-capable commercial real estate services firm,’” said White in a statement. “We have executed our plan considerably ahead of schedule, and have achieved the long-term vision of becoming the world’s leader in commercial real estate services … It is also good news for me, as I can embark on my next business chapter at a time when the company is in the best possible position.”

Shares were down 24 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $17.31 in midday Wednesday trading on the New York Stock Exchange.