Nikki Thornton
Caroline Sullivan
Amanda Spangler
Tomi Sargent
Caitlin Russell
Allison Reynolds
Shayna Platt
Aryel Perring
Thuy T. Nguyen
Jade Miller
Elena Ji
Kelly M. Greco
Sarah Godwin
Rachel Gines
Shaily Garg
Katie Evans
Ashley Doukas
Zoe Daniel
Anita R Chen
Jennifer Carrillo
Rayelle Calvert
Hannah Breed
Noelani C. Brannon
Katie Barker
Stephanie Ascher
Lindsey A. Ancona
Rising Star
Linda White
Eglae Recchia
Eve Picker
Dawn H. Pfaff
Leana Janik
Robin Fisher
Erin Converse
PropTech Executive / Innovator
Carly Stevenson
Darcy K. Rutzen
Barbara Oddo
Ran Meng
Megan Matthews
Natali Juarbe
Gina Iverson
Jill Higgins
Jennifer Heede
Kim Feliciano
Toni Eubanks
Bianca Curtis
Kia Crooms
Shawn Brown
Property / Facility Manager
Sarah Schwarzschild
Rebecca Long
Laura Klein
Amy Galvin
Julia Furber
Collete English Dixon
Dianne P. Crocker
Leslie Cohen
Bonnie Boden
Mentor
Holly Yang
Katie Woodside
Katie M. Williams
Vanessa Williams
Elena Wall
Christina Twidale
Missy Teague
Nicole Stenclik
Kelly Siegal
Masha Rzoski
Sofia Royce
Emily Pollard
Hannah Miet
Liz Mahoney
Angie Leccese
Liza Kunkel
Chintimini M. Keith
Nicolette Jaze
Leeza Hoyt
Sandra Hill
Christine Gustafson
Courtney Ettus
Tricia Baker
Marketing / Communications Professional
Jenny Zhan
Laura Yanushpolsky
Christie Wootton
Pamela West
Sondra Wenger
Carly Tripp
Amy Stavin
Vicky Schiff
Ellie Perlman
Sara Myerson
Uma Moriarity
Madison Meier
Jaime Lee
Mary Lang
Jackie Knight
Katie Kimble
Julie Ingersoll
Laura M. Hyde
Jera Harris
Karen Fan
Julia Boyd Corso
Lisa Bhathal Merage
Anshu Bera
Gina Baker Chambers
Investment Professional
Next page
Previous page
1
2
3
Design by Chris Nicholls
Illustration: xy/Adobe Stock
Click on photos for more info
Nikki Thornton was a recipient of the CREW Network Scholarship, which provided her the opportunity to intern at CBRE. It was one of several internships she had during her time as an accounting student at Western Carolina University and while earning her master of accounting degree from Wingate University. As the result of an internship at Elliott Davis LLC, she was highly recruited out of college to work at the firm, where she went on to be promoted twice to the role of tax senior at the large firm. She then joined boutique accounting firm Stell CPA as a tax expert before being recruited to Charlotte development firm MECA Commercial Real Estate where she is the firm’s commercial controller. She oversees day-to-day financial operations of the company, including advising on key developments, locations, budgets, complex underwriting and providing insight and guidance on economic projections. She also assisted in re-branding the firm, a project that entailed hours of strategy, planning, project management, partner engagement and meeting stakeholder needs on time and on budget. Thornton is a partner in a real estate firm, H34 Homes, and is instrumental in the firm’s strategic direction, financial reporting and partnerships.
Nikki Thornton
Due to her ability to develop and strengthen relationships among stakeholders involved in a project as well as her professionalism and collaborative approach, Caroline Sullivan was recruited to Bozzuto in 2014. She is the director of business development for Bozzuto Construction responsible for managing the business development process while also creating and maintaining client and industry relationships for projects in Washington D.C. and Virginia. Her expertise includes various multifamily product types, including rental residential, affordable, mixed-income, market rate, renovations, and student and senior housing. Since she took over business development efforts for the DMV, the construction pipeline has doubled to $2 billion. In 2023, Sullivan oversaw the pursuit of more than $1 billion worth of projects and closed $250 million into active construction. She graduated from the ULI Washington Leadership Institute, an experiential training program that equips future land use leaders with the regional and industry insights, leadership skills and multidisciplinary relationships they need to build a thriving, sustainable and equitable Greater Washington region. In addition, Sullivan co-founded Badass Real Estate Women (BREW), a grassroots networking organization that connects and empowers bold women in real estate.
Caroline Sullivan
Amanda Spangler made CRE history in 2021 when she and colleague Jodie Poirier became the first two women to oversee a global commercial real estate services company’s operations in the Greater Los Angeles region. Spangler is managing director for the Inland Empire and Orange County offices of Colliers overseeing a team of 70 brokerage professionals. Her responsibilities include expansion, with a focus on fostering organic growth by implementing comprehensive business plans for her sales professionals and identifying unique client opportunities. She has hired more than 20 associates in the past two years and has targeted increased diversification through informational and recruitment efforts at local universities, such as Cal Poly Pomona. Spangler holds a key position on the board of directors for NAIOP Inland Empire, where she has been appointed as the Broker Challenge and Market Update co-chair. In addition to her professional responsibilities, she is dedicated to enhancing community initiatives and philanthropic endeavors in the offices under her supervision. Every quarter, her regional offices collaborate with local charities, such as Someone Cares Soup Kitchen in Costa Mesa, United Way in the Inland Empire, and the Boys & Girls Club in Santa Ana to address the needs of local communities.
Amanda Spangler
Savills assistant director Tomi Sargent has closed more than 154 deals and nearly one million square feet due to a client- centric approach and an unwavering dedication to her work. As a tenant representation broker, she guides clients through the complexities of leasing transactions, including the entire process from initial consultation to lease negotiation and execution. She conducts comprehensive market analyses to identify optimal leasing opportunities that align with her clients’ strategic goals and financial objectives and negotiates favorable lease terms and concessions. She provides expert guidance on market trends, lease negotiations and portfolio optimization strategies. In the past year, Sargent has achieved several notable milestones, including facilitating the relocation and establishment of a finance technology company’s first office in Washington D.C. and securing a below-market deal as well as collaborating with a nonprofit client on a restructuring and extension that resulted in $4.1 million in savings. Sargent mentors young professionals in CRE through her participation in the CREW Now & Next committee. She has served on the silent auction committee for Lombardi Women, contributing to raising more than $4 million for breast cancer research, and she participated in the JDRF Real Estate Games planning committee, which helped raise $1.4 million for Type 1 Diabetes research.
Tomi Sargent
In 2017, Greystar tapped Caitlin Russell to institutionalize its investor relations function, which today includes 25 members worldwide. She wore many hats when she first joined the company and supported a lean team, but under her guidance, the team has grown to 25 members worldwide, which she leads as senior director of investor relations. When she joined the company, Greystar’s AUM was $20 billion. Today it is more than $76 billion. Russell is responsible for delivering the Greystar platform to institutional investors with a focus on capital formation and business development and providing execution support for the investment management team across Greystar’s North American ventures. She played a key role in developing a strategy for Greystar’s Essential Housing initiative which aims to deliver high-quality attainable housing to underserved essential workers while targeting attractive return potential for investors. Russell is described by her team as an eloquent speaker who has top-notch presentation skills, can command a room and knows what it takes to thoughtfully deliver the message of Greystar’s platform to investors.
Caitlin Russell
Portland-based attorney Allison Reynolds is an influential legal advisor to commercial, residential and industrial real estate developers in complex land use law. A partner at Stoel Rives LLP, she practices in Oregon, Washington and California and handles multistate transactions, specializing in high- impact development projects, including waterfront redevelopment, affordable housing, inclusionary housing, historic building repositioning and public-private partnerships. Reynolds is land use counsel to Oregon Health and Science University, Oregon’s largest hospital and only medical school, for development work on its campuses spanning almost 400 acres. She also is land use counsel to AJCPT on its redevelopment of the historic Troy Laundry Building in Portland’s Central Eastside, which recently opened as the new home for Soho House Portland. Reynolds co-founded Stoel’s collaborative, industry-focused Dirt and Development group, which facilitates information sharing across real estate, construction land use, environment and litigation practice groups, and is a long-standing member of NAIOP’s Oregon chapter, where she works collaboratively with government officials to shape policies to stimulate investment and economic growth within Portland. Last year, Russell was elected to the board of sustainable development advocacy group Oregon Smart Growth and has served as a policy committee member since 2019.
Allison Reynolds
Shayna Platt has played a significant role in differentiating BioMed Realty’s portfolio through ESG initiatives, responding to investor and tenant appetite for sustainable buildings. As senior director of ESG, Platt established a standardized portfolio approach to ESG data collection, process improvement and achieving healthy green building certifications. She also led entity-level ESG reporting in alignment with sustainability frameworks and provided ESG- related training across the company. Her accomplishments include the creation of BioMed Realty’s first ESG materiality assessment followed by the organization of proper ESG governance throughout departments by establishing and leading taskforces focused on sustainable buildings, sustainable development, energy and climate, and DEI. Platt guided BioMed Realty through its GRESB submission, a collaborative effort that involved virtually every department within the company, showcasing her leadership. The company secured 4-star ratings in standing investments and a 5-star rating in development. Since moving to San Diego for her career at BioMed Realty, Platt has involved herself with organizations like the Young Professional Network San Diego as a way to network. She is also a member of the ULI Greenprint community to collaborate and advance sustainability efforts at an industry level.
Shayna Platt
Aryel Perring has been a go-getter in the CRE industry from the beginning of her college career when she served as an intern at WMG. Today she is regional development director at the firm where she likens her role to being the quarterback of Florida’s West Coast region. Since taking over as RDD in October 2020, she has played a pivotal role in overseeing shopping centers and other complex developments incorporating credit tenants, including Publix, Fifth Third Bank, Starbucks, Chipotle and Heartland Dental. Perring is always looking for new opportunities to expand WMG’s development portfolio, leveraging in-depth research skills and an ability to network with important players in the southwest Florida real estate market. Once she identifies a promising site, her role shifts to underwriting and evaluating the opportunity, including conducting financial analysis to assess the project feasibility and analyzing site plans to ensure they align with WMG’s strategic objectives. Her greatest professional accomplishment has been her leadership throughout the planning, construction and grand opening stages of a new Publix development site in Sarasota, the first of three planned Publix grand openings Perring is working on.
Aryel Perring
Reed Smith LLP partner Thuy Nguyen has handled complex real estate transactions worth more than $1.2 billion in aggregate during the past two years. She began her career at Reed Smith nine years ago as a summer associate and was promoted to partner at the beginning of 2024. Her responsibilities include representing institutional developers, owners, lenders, buyers and sellers in transactions involving acquisition, disposition, leasing and secured finance throughout California and the U.S. She filled in for the firm’s deputy general counsel during a planned leave, which gave her invaluable insight into the inner workings and needs of one of the firm’s top clients. During this time as inside counsel, Nguyen sat in on committee investment meetings and advised the client’s C-suite on legal risks associated with transactions, helping them determine their structure and course. She then worked with the business team and managed outside counsel to see the deal to completion. Nguyen has served on Reed Smith’s hiring committee, where she is focused on recruiting diverse talent while cultivating the next generation of legal leaders. She also serves as an integration mentor for lateral hires and first-year associates, helping new arrivals integrate, meet internal benchmarks, and consider career promotion and compensation issues.
Thuy T. Nguyen
Jade Miller is president of capital markets at Bourne Financial Group, as well as the youngest-ever elected president of the Alternative and Direct Investment Securities Association (ADISA), where she served as head of the association’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee and has actively championed the expansion of its DEI initiatives. Notably, she has forged impactful partnerships with historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), opening avenues for more students and women to participate in ADISA events. She also mentors women in the alternative investment space and within BFG. In her role at BFG, Miller identifies new investment opportunities, formulates the structure of Bourne investment programs, and sources equity through strategic engagements with broker-dealers, RIAs and institutional partners. She also orchestrates sales efforts across all offerings and distribution operations, ensuring the legal protection of investors’ capital. Since joining BFG, Miller has helped grow the sales team and spearheaded the launch of six distinctive BFG offerings. Her strategic vision and hands-on approach have significantly contributed to the company’s success and continued expansion to a portfolio that includes 31 senior housing communities with more than 3,000 units.
Jade Miller
Elena Ji was born and raised in Shenzhen, China, and came to the U.S. as an exchange student when she was 14. Moving halfway across the world as a teenager taught her skills that have helped her thrive. Ji moved to Charlotte in 2018 as part of a market expansion with the general contractor she worked for. She then attended grad school at UNC Charlotte, returning to the building industry upon graduation. She joined Barringer Construction and was a top-performing project manager for two years before joining JLL, where she is a construction project manager working on the Bank of America account. During her career, she has managed construction for ground-up banks and high-end interior upfit projects including Grant Thornton and Allspring offices in Vantage South End. She was involved in multiple healthcare projects including Reproductive Specialists of the Carolinas and Northeastern University Nursing School. She is also an active CRE broker with Gallimore & Associates and she assisted her husband in co-founding KH-Elite Cleaning Services, a fast-growing commercial cleaning company in the Charlotte market.
Elena Ji
Despite being a relatively young shareholder in the law firm Polsinelli, Kelly Greco has had an outsized impact on the commercial real estate industry. She joined Polsinelli in 2017 as an associate and was elected to firm shareholder two years later, recognizing her deep understanding of complex commercial real estate. Her practice focuses on advising developers, owners, investors, landlords and tenants as well as borrowers and lenders on legal matters regarding retail developments, retail leasing, multifamily assets, student housing, industrial assets and cannabis transactions. Due in large part to her ability to win repeat business, Greco’s practice has grown substantially at Polsinelli. She represents one of the largest publicly traded, vertically integrated, multistate cannabis companies in the U.S., advising it on the acquisition and leasing of properties spanning nine states. She also serves as exclusive outside general counsel for a privately held commercial real estate investment and development company based in Detroit, facilitating more than 65 real estate transactions on behalf of the client encompassing a wide range of activities related to commercial real estate. Throughout the past year, she has completed more than $870 million of complex, national real estate transactions on behalf of her clients.
Kelly M. Greco
Foundry Commercial SVP Sarah Godwin has built success in the CRE land advisory space despite disruption amid the pandemic. A graduate of UNC with degrees in economics and psychology, Godwin was interested in pursuing jobs where she could use her economics degree, but a job board posting led to a role as an analyst with JLL, where she waited out the Great Financial Crisis in a research and analysis role until capital markets recovered in 2012. She started a land brokerage business from scratch at her previous employer. Much of her success during the past year has been the result of the hard work she put in from 2020 to 2022 leading land deals totaling more than $230 million last year. She joined Foundry Commercial in 2023 and co-leads its land services team in Raleigh, working to expand the company’s land services and capital markets functions. With more than 16 years of commercial real estate experience, Godwin has sold more than $840 million in greenfield and redevelopment land and specializes in institutional land investment sales and development advisory services. She has extensive experience selling land for diverse uses including multifamily, residential, build-for-rent, life science and medical office.
Sarah Godwin
Rachel Gines began her career at CenterSquare Investment Management seven years ago after graduating from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Since then she has cultivated close and trusting relationships with institutional consultants and other large investors and has contributed to fundraising and consultant relations efforts in the Western U.S., including extensive investor research into plans with more than $2 billion in capital. Gines was recently promoted to VP of capital markets at the firm, adding responsibility for managing CenterSquare’s business development and consultant relations efforts across the central U.S. She led the development, refinement and creation of the materials and narrative of CenterSquare’s latest private equity real estate fund and secured multiple investor allocations. Her responsibilities also include her role conducting extensive analysis of competing firms and leveraging her insights to drive the positioning of the firm’s various strategies. She has taken an interest in the internal development of employees, serving as a mentor for the team’s summer analyst in 2023 and supporting recruiting efforts. In addition, Gines has taken the initiative to help the firm further embrace tech-forward approaches through her participation in the CenterSquare Salesforce committee and the major role she played in the redevelopment of the firm’s internal CRM system.
Rachel Gines
Shaily Garg, CEO and co-founder of GlobalFair Inc., spearheaded a revolutionary shift in the cross-border construction materials tech industry, targeting a $1.4 trillion global market. Inspired by her brother’s struggles as an SME manufacturer out of India, she identified a global market gap in the construction industry that could benefit from technology. GlobalFair’s mission is to build a virtual factory for the world of construction materials, creating a borderless trade economy through the technology-first supply of construction materials in a cross-border space to help transform supply-side manufacturing in India, Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries. Garg’s disruptive leadership at GlobalFair is evident in her proactive shift to the U.S. where she has achieved a 93% month-over-month growth and secured a $22 million series A round of funding. She leads a team of more than 120 people across India, Vietnam and the U.S. serving contractors and retail customers across 36 states. Garg is a mentor at the AccelerateHer program hosted by Amazon and Lightspeed designed to nurture and empower women-led early-stage Indian startups to build, grow and scale a successful technology business.
Shaily Garg
Since her first day as a project coordinator at Skyline Construction, Katie Evans has outperformed expectations. Despite having no background in construction, Evans’ commitment propelled her to a project manager role in less than four years. Since then she has managed more than 43 projects, collectively worth $108.7 million and spanning more than 1.4 million square feet. Her projects include San Francisco’s first IKEA retail store and meeting center as well as a 46,000-square-foot co-working space and a 26,000- square-foot high-end food hall at the same location. She plays a major role in Skyline Construction’s national accounts committee, which has led to master agreements with 15 new clients and ongoing negotiations with several more. Evans plays a significant role in empowering future generations of industry workers. She co-manages the Skyline Bay Area Summer Internship Program, which actively builds a pipeline for promising project engineers. Under her mentorship, interns immerse themselves in hands-on project engineer tasks, ensuring their growth and development. Her dedication extends beyond the office as she engages with college campuses and career events to promote Skyline Construction as an employer of choice. Colleagues say Evans navigates complex challenges with positivity and humor.
Katie Evans
New York City development is riddled with challenges, and Ashley Doukas helps her clients grapple with some of the most difficult, including securing approvals from the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission and staying compliant with inclusionary housing rules and environmental reviews. Doukas is a partner with Adler & Stachenfeld where she has advised clients across New York City in navigating complex real estate development issues for more than a decade. As chair of the firm’s land use and zoning practice, she represents a diverse portfolio of clients on a broad range of real estate development matters with an emphasis on land use, zoning and related environmental issues. Doukas is a leading legal expert in New York City waterfront development, having worked on numerous waterfront projects, including a recent rezoning project on the Bronx River and a rezoning in the Special Flushing Waterfront District several years ago. She serves as an associate board member of The Women’s Housing and Economic Development Corp., a community development organization dedicated to building sustainable, affordable homes with the vision that all people deserve healthy, vibrant communities.
Ashley Doukas
Basis Industrial was Zoe Daniel’s first job after graduating college, and as the firm has grown exponentially since Daniel first started, her career has grown alongside it. She joined Basis Industrial to pursue a career in the commercial real estate industry, a familiar business as her family was involved in residential real estate. Daniel is the director of construction and development/leasing working on self-storage and industrial projects through acquisition, development and leasing. When she first joined the company in August 2022, Basis owned and managed 200,000 square feet of industrial warehouses with a total of 30 tenants. It now owns more than four million square feet of industrial warehouses with more than 800 tenants. In addition, Basis is developing 15 self-storage buildings, and Daniel has been a key contributor in the construction, development and leasing of these assets. In the past 12 months, the largest deal Daniel worked on was the acquisition of a $30 million warehouse with an additional land parcel located in her hometown of Armonk, New York. She assisted in negotiating a sale-leaseback for a term of 15 years and was the main point of contact for leasing. She attended all the planning board meetings in Armonk and has facilitated the pre-construction with Basis’ design team.
Zoe Daniel
Nuveen Real Estate asset management associate Anita Chen’s journey is a testament to her competence, grit and integrity. She is a first-generation Chinese-American who is deaf. Born to parents who immigrated to the U.S. with only $200 and limited English proficiency to establish a door manufacturing company, Chen witnessed their American Dream unravel during the Great Recession, culminating in bankruptcy, the loss of their home and the closing of their business. Faced with the challenge of supporting her family in the wake of her parents’ linguistic barriers where they are unable to find jobs, she assumed the role of head of household, opting to complete her high school education through an online homeschool program while concurrently working full-time in various capacities to provide shelter and necessities. This work ethic persisted through her college years and continues to define her professional career today. Chen manages a multifamily portfolio valued at $1.1 billion in Los Angeles, Orange County, Inland Empire and Denver, overseeing strategic management, leasing activities, and capital investments, navigating negotiations for property management, leasing and construction contracts, and analyzing investment strategies. Chen champions inclusivity through accessibility as a deaf woman advocating for closed captioning at major real estate events, starting with CREW Network.
Anita R Chen
As senior director of enterprise solutions at ATTOM, Jennifer Carrillo manages aspects of customer service, technical support and sales operations, and she supported 62% of all of the company’s sale transactions during the past year. Her responsibilities include providing guidance and mentorship to customer service representatives, data fulfillment engineers and sales engineers. In her concurrent role as a sales engineer, Carrillo is tasked with selling complex technical products and services leveraging her comprehensive understanding of the technical aspects, functionalities and benefits of ATTOM’s offerings to communicate their value to potential customers. She collaborated with the product team to create a groundbreaking new product that benefitted from her deep understanding of client needs and perspectives. Her commitment extends into civic engagement through her regular attendance at city meetings where she serves as an advocate for policies, practices and initiatives aimed at fostering a safe, inclusive and fiscally sound city. Her proactive involvement in local governance showcases her leadership and dedication to shaping a community that prioritizes the well-being of its residents.
Jennifer Carrillo
Rayelle Calvert began with Crexi as an account manager and has been promoted five times throughout her tenure to her current role as senior regional sales director running a team of 20. She is responsible for meeting and exceeding company sales goals across the central and mid-America markets. Her day-to-day responsibilities consist of developing and implementing plans and procedures to meet these goals; coaching, mentoring, and motivating her team; and recruiting and training new talent. She also travels across the country meeting with commercial real estate brokerages to present Crexi’s vision, value proposition and product. Calvert holds the highest sales volume in the company’s history and finished 2023 as a top-five salesperson at Crexi. She also set a personal goal to attain her real estate license which she earned last year. Calvert has represented Crexi at numerous events, including ICSC, SIOR and NAI regional and global conferences. She is passionate about animals and in her personal time volunteers at a local animal rescue, Best Friends Animal Society. She also dedicates her spare time to volunteering at her church, working at its food bank and giving back to the local Inglewood community weekly.
Rayelle Calvert
In the nine years since graduating with a civil engineering degree, Hannah Breed has grown into a leader in her office and her community. She is a studio manager at Urban Design Partners where she leads a diverse team of civil engineers, landscape architects and planners while managing land development projects across the Carolinas. She has a portfolio of 50 projects ranging from small urban infill to large single- family developments. Breed was the lead engineer on the Lintmen’s project that was awarded an Urban Design award for great development near transit and the McKee Creek Village that was recognized as community of the year by LGI. She has helped grow UDP through her recruiting efforts and has developed various programs for aspiring project managers and those who want to grow technically. She also is a founding member of UDP’s operations leadership group, OpsL10, a group of project managers and designers who meet weekly to oversee systems and processes for the UDP team. Throughout the past year, the group has developed and implemented new and refined processes to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the team. She is involved with CREW Charlotte.
Hannah Breed
Since she was a teenager, Noelani Brannon has been interested in the built environment and inspired to creatively transform spaces. She attended the University of Central Florida, earning a BA in communications followed by a Master of Art in interior design from the Savannah College of Art and Design. She then spent three years at Nehmer and HVS Design, where she rose to senior designer. Brannon joined //3877 as an interior designer collaborating on interior design and branding projects spanning the hospitality, retail and healthcare sectors. Specific to hospitality, she has had her hand in various projects — from 60-key boutique hotels to 370-key branded properties. Currently, Brannon is working on the renovation of Salt Lake City Marriott’s public spaces, including the convention center. She focuses on leading projects from initial concept through design and construction, working onsite to carefully curate the space’s materials, finishes and products including furniture and fixtures. Throughout each project, she leads teams through each step of the design process, guiding them along the way to facilitate their own professional development.
Noelani C. Brannon
Morningstar Properties controller and VP of accounting Katie Barker joined the firm in 2022 and is an integral member of leadership, providing strategic insight, financial performance initiatives and corporate oversight. Throughout the past year, Barker has been building credibility for the internal accounting department at Morningstar Properties, which manages more than $130 million of net revenue commercial real estate property. Her oversight of seven accountants and all financial reporting has led to institutional partners continuing to provide millions of dollars of capital for future endeavors. She revamped the budgeting process and eliminated inefficiencies for more than $117 million of net revenue generating self-storage properties and $16 million in net revenue for marina properties. She also eliminated multiple systems and created efficiencies for communication across teams and divisions, and she implemented a new purchase card program for 200 users, saving credit card fees and additional credit rewards of $50,000 annually for the company. Barker is the 2024 president of the Charlotte chapter of CREW, where she has raised more than $650,000 during three consecutive years for programs and scholarships while serving on the sponsorship committee.
Katie Barker
Stephanie Ascher started her career as a receptionist at KBS nearly 15 years ago. Her strong drive to achieve results caught the attention of the executive team, which moved her to an investment analyst role. She ascended the ranks as an investment associate and senior investment associate before reaching her current executive role as AVP of asset management and portfolio operations. Her career path also has taken her across the country, giving her experience in the Mid-Atlantic, Southwest and Southeast managing 4.7 million square feet of properties. Colleagues say she is warm and down-to-earth and leads with grace and intelligence. She wears many hats in her current role, from asset management to interdepartmental coordination and data analysis. She remains up to date on changing market conditions, performs due diligence and manages accounting, budgeting and underwriting for all projects related to commercial real estate. She also provides initial and ongoing training to acquisition/asset management analysts and collaborates with regional presidents and the C-suite on special projects. Ascher recently graduated from NAIOP’s Young Professionals Group leadership program and is involved with the Orange County Chapter of CREW most recently helping with the chapter’s SPIRE Awards gala.
Stephanie Ascher
Lindsey Ancona’s vision for building happy communities led to Inspire, Silverstein Properties’ hospitality-driven division that manages amenity spaces and residential properties with a holistic approach. Ancona is VP of Inspire and has grown it into a revenue-based division of Silverstein Properties despite challenges related to COVID-19. When the pandemic arrived in New York, the company shifted to a remote work model, pushing the fledgling Inspire project to the back burner. Knowing people were lonely, stranded and fatigued with the news that plagued every media and social outlet source, Ancona and her colleagues turned the Inspire platform into a digital and virtual place to keep tenants and their employees engaged. During this time, Inspire grew from 12,000 users to nearly 15,000 users, and as people began to return to the office, the platform transitioned to an in-person offering. Ancona oversees Silverstein Properties’ commercial amenity spaces, sets and maintains associated budgets for each space, manages a team of account managers, creates Inspire programming and procures external partnerships. Inspire hosted more than 50 building-wide events across the commercial portfolio in 2023.
Lindsey A. Ancona
Linda White drives the development, management and implementation of Colliers360 Analytics, a business intelligence system that features dashboards and portfolio analytics to provide tailored insights for real estate and facilities management needs. She established an industry- leading lease administration services platform, has championed AI/CDP within the lease abstraction process and is currently working on defining other AI solutions that will bring value to Colliers’ clients. White is head of lease administration and technology services as well as SVP of occupier services for the Americas at Colliers, where she oversees intricate system integration solutions, including B2B procurement and SAP implementation, for the business partner channel. Under her guidance, two teams provide lease management and technology services to more than 225 clients and have experienced consistent year-over-year growth. Joining Colliers in 2015, White brought more than 20 years of experience in solution development, platform management and system integration. Having held progressive roles at IBM as a program manager and executive consultant, her technical expertise extends to the integration of advanced technology platforms, including Qlik Sense, showcasing her understanding of how analytics can impact daily operations and align corporate real estate portfolio management with overall business strategy and objectives.
Linda White
As chief product officer at Berkadia, Eglae Recchia has leveraged technology and data-driven insights, including enabling an artificial intelligence strategy, to streamline processes, reduce risks and drive better outcomes for clients. She sees a slow market as an opportunity to redefine Berkadia’s digital product strategies that help producers find stability and growth amid uncertainty. Recchia is committed to driving innovation and pushing the boundaries of what is possible at the intersection of technology and CRE. Originally from Argentina, she brings a diverse perspective to her work and believes strongly in the power of diversity and empowerment. “Eglae helps connect the dots across Berkadia’s organization and helps define the digital product strategy that Berkadia looks to deliver,” says EVP and chief of information and innovation officer Damu Bashyam. “She’s responsible for leading product and design teams that work with the business, understands the problems, looks for solutions, designs, and partners within the company to bring them to life.” Beyond internal product development, Recchia collaborates with cross-functional teams, including investment sales, marketing and business development, to ensure a cohesive and integrated approach to product strategy.
Eglae Recchia
Eve Picker founded SmallChange.co in 2016 to democratize real estate development and investment at a time when crowdfunding regulation allowed anyone 18 and older to participate in investment opportunities. The platform connects developers who are raising money for projects with social impact to people who wish to support such projects and streamlines the investment process for both parties. To date, 62% of the projects on SmallChange are minority- or woman- owned and almost 90% are in underserved neighborhoods. Picker oversees all aspects of the business and its growth, working closely with the SmallChange advisory board to determine strategy while supervising staff and expanding the pool of investors in both the company and in the projects on the platform. Under her leadership, SmallChange has listed 47 projects and closed and secured more than $13 million in funding for 36 of them. Throughout the past year, Picker has shared her insights about crowdfunding, real estate and equitable communities during keynotes and podcasts and has participated on panels for organizations and events.
Eve Picker
As a broker in New York and Florida for more than two decades, Dawn Pfaff observed challenges with the local multiple listing service structure and founded MyStateMLS to provide an alternative MLS solution. She designed, built and developed a platform that provides the same core features of a local MLS but adds sales strategies, marketing tools and features to help real estate professionals succeed during uncertain times. As inventory decreased and the industry got tougher during the past few years, Pfaff has built tools and focused on aspects of the MLS that help agents save time and earn more money. She developed a novel buyer agreement form designed to establish agency between real estate sales associates and buyers and spearheaded the introduction of a marketing assets feature within the MLS infrastructure. This feature empowers members to access and download more than 500 diverse and customizable marketing materials, significantly easing brand promotion efforts for real estate professionals. MyStateMLS has more than 100,000 members across the country.
Dawn H. Pfaff
Before joining WMG Development, Leana Janik worked in project controls at Walt Disney Imagineering, but her Disney career was disrupted when COVID-19 hit. After being furloughed and then laid off, Janik realized her estimating and project control skills were useful in commercial real estate and brought her skills to WMB Development as program controls manager. She has overhauled every aspect of WMG project management to work in a more sensible, efficient and easy-to-understand manner. Janik leverages her experience outside of commercial real estate to create outside-the-box solutions to operational hurdles. Rather than relying solely on specialized real estate management software, she has integrated software programs such as Salesforce and Smartsheet to monitor company developments and project workflow, manage accounting tasks and identify potential problems before they arise. She has tailored software solutions to improve workflow and on-site efficiency for projects across the U.S. In addition, she has designed, implemented and executed processes that streamline software and on-the-job training for new development team members.
Leana Janik
Throughout her 20-year career, Newmark senior managing director Robin Fisher has closed hundreds of millions of dollars in leasing deals and helped the company navigate through significant periods of growth. She specializes in tenant representation and advises on asset optimization and site selection strategies. In addition, with an innovative spirit and commitment to sustainability and efficient space utilization, Fisher founded PropTech company BLACE, a vendor booking platform that activates vacant and underutilized spaces. Blace.com features more than 100 unique event venues across New York City and Los Angeles, with more than 40 venues in its exclusive portfolio unavailable elsewhere. The platform supports short-term bookings, from corporate gatherings and large-scale productions to milestone celebrations and film/TV shoots. Under her leadership as CEO, BLACE has garnered top-tier press coverage, expanded its operations in Los Angeles, and secured the iconic US Bank Tower in Los Angeles as an exclusive venue. Beyond her professional responsibilities, Fisher is dedicated to mentoring younger talent at Newmark and BLACE, guiding the next generation of professionals with her extensive experience and insights. Her dual roles and mentorship efforts highlight her leadership and influence across industries and her significant impact on real estate and tech.
Robin Fisher
Hiffman National director of property management operations Erin Converse pivoted to the commercial real estate industry after working as a programmer for Intel and a college math professor. A quick study, Converse adjusted to her role as a property assistant and quickly rose to property manager. She recently transitioned to the operations side of the company and has emerged as an expert in innovative systems and technologies that improve employee and client experiences. Her impact is most visible in the onboarding and internal career development processes. Her brainchild, the Hiffman Essentials program, is a six-week training course based on employee feedback that equips new property management professionals with the tools and confidence to maintain a consistent quality of work nationwide. Recently elevated to her current role, Converse is tasked with researching, developing and rolling out innovative tools and processes for property managers and engineers. One such process unique to Hiffman is the Property Engineering Evaluation Program. Through the PEEP, each building engineer at Hiffman has a standardized checklist of tasks that ensure their building is running smoothly. She also automated processes in Adobe Sign that allow property management staff to focus on higher-value tasks.
Erin Converse
Carly Stevenson started her career as a leasing consultant and now is EVP of property management at Avanath Capital Management LLC. She brings more than 20 years of experience to her role where she is responsible for ensuring the quality of property management across Avanath’s 77 managed communities. In partnership with her team and other key leaders at the firm, she manages all aspects of operations including financial viability and sustainability, product performance and marketing. She also identifies and improves existing policies and procedures to maximize apartment communities’ performance. She is skilled at ensuring the execution of all corporate policies and procedures while identifying opportunities to enhance operations, and challenging processes for continual evolution and improvement. She relocated to Milwaukee from California to join the executive team at the firm’s corporate headquarters when she accepted her current role. Her career also spans high-level positions with companies in the property management and multifamily space, from entrepreneurial organizations to institutional investors, including Mandel Group, McCaffery Inc., Trilogy Real Estate Group, AMLI Residential and Waterton. Colleagues say she has a positive attitude and inviting energy with a sincere sense of curiosity.
Carly Stevenson
Darcy Rutzen, SVP of property management for M & J Wilkow, showed exceptional leadership last year when the Outlets of Maui, an oceanfront shopping center in Lahaina owned and managed by the firm, was lost in Maui’s wildfire. Rutzen and her team responded swiftly, communicating with tenants and the government to address imminent needs. While simultaneously dealing with the business matters of such a substantial loss, Rutzen launched a campaign to help raise money and supplies for Outlets of Maui employees, customers and area residents who lost their homes. Rutzen also worked to consolidate the company’s office property management platform with its higher-performing retail platform to create economies of scale in staffing and reduce costs in response to the recent challenging office sector. Rutzen oversees the operations, marketing and people management of 96 retail and office properties throughout the U.S. In addition to her core responsibilities as the national head of property management, Rutzen is a member of the company’s business development team, supporting acquisition and third-party business development efforts. Rutzen has outstanding communication skills and is known for creativity that has resulted in award-winning marketing campaigns and unique redevelopment efforts.
Darcy K. Rutzen
As a director and regional general manager of the Boston area for Tishman Speyer, Barbara Oddo is responsible for strategic planning, financial management, property staff and community relationship building. Amid uncertainty in the industry and protracted return to work for office tenants, Oddo began devoting weekly staff meetings to building a sense of calm and generating innovative ideas, including health and wellness talks, team-building events and intentional outreach to connect in person with building tenants. At the same time, Oddo moved ahead with two products. She oversees 3.2 million square feet in office buildings, The Eddy 260-unit mixed-use residential/real estate asset and a 14-acre development for the Harvard Enterprise Research Campus. Both The Eddy mixed-use development and the Harvard ERC project encountered challenges, which Oddo addressed by anticipating setbacks and assuming realistic goals. She worked with third-party residential property managers to integrate best practices from both commercial and residential operations to improve the overall performance of the Eddy building by reducing expenses and increasing revenue from previous ownership. Throughout her career, Oddo has been a mentor, both formal and informal, to others in the industry.
Barbara Oddo
Ran Meng has emerged as a leader during uncertain times, navigating challenges with grace and adapting strategies to changing landscapes. Meng is VP of property management Southeast at Phillips Edison & Co. where she leads a team of five property managers and oversees eight million square feet of shopping centers in Florida and Georgia. She strategically focuses on net operating income growth by efficiently managing common area maintenance and capital expenses. She also is proud to maintain a tenant satisfaction rate of more than 90%. Under her guidance, Meng’s team executed capital projects that enhanced property value and tenant experiences worth more than $10 million. She also spearheaded the transition of four new properties acquired by the company and led two redevelopment projects. Beyond property management, Meng led a team of students to victory in the ICSC Foundation case study competition, demonstrating her ability to inspire and drive results with future leaders. She also serves on the board of the Rocky Mountain Shopping Centers Association.
Ran Meng
Megan Matthews has spent her entire 25-year career in property management at JLL, most recently as managing director of project management for the Mid-Atlantic region for the past five years. She oversees 290 employees working in 41 million square feet of office, industrial and mixed-use assets. She has been key to the group’s growth and success evidenced by its top-line revenue growth and bottom-line profit year after year. During the past year, Matthews has led wins with 10 clients covering 25 class A buildings totaling 6.5 million square feet. Matthews believes it is imperative to blend service offerings and has been instrumental in leading an initiative at the national level to collaborate among JLL business lines. In 2023, she achieved Top Gun status, an internal JLL designation awarded to the top performers for exceptional achievement. Matthews has been involved with CREW in several cities throughout her career and is serving her first year of a 2-year board position for CREW DC.
Megan Matthews
Natali Juarbe joined Granite Properties in 2016 as a property manager and quickly ascended the ranks at the firm due to her leadership qualities to senior property manager and then general manager. In 2022, she managed two challenging class A office buildings in the firm’s Houston portfolio totaling 800,000 square feet and was then asked to serve as interim general manager in Atlanta to lead a portfolio transformation. She split her time between the two markets but then moved to Atlanta full-time to train the team to manage the buildings on their own. Juarbe recently returned to the Houston office to oversee two office properties in Houston and five in Dallas/Fort Worth totaling 1.7 million square feet. Her responsibilities include overseeing these assets and providing leadership, direction and supervision to the property experience team. She is focused on nurturing talent, training, mentoring and developing staff; supervising the planning, budgeting, and control of operating and capital expenditures; and ensuring properties, teams and vendor contracts follow laws, regulatory requirements, policies and procedures. In recognition of her work, Juarbe won Granite’s Living the Purpose award, honoring one person in the company who embodies its values and purpose.
Natali Juarbe
Gina Iverson began her career as a day-to-day property manager and gained experience through a variety of roles ranging from assistant to manager to senior manager. She spent nine years as a regional operations director overseeing 250 million square feet under management, including transitions and acquisitions, annual audits, operations policy and market training. After working in Hawaii as a market leader, Iverson returned to Arizona where today she is director of operations at Avison Young, working on its Real Estate Management Services national team. She leverages her broad experience to execute, develop and implement national policies and procedures for the group and is responsible for collaborating with the U.S. REMS managing director, market leaders, managers, property accounting, IT and HR to streamline processes and ensure efficiencies across the platform. Iverson has supported the growth and success of the Avison Young U.S. REMS service line, helping expand the recurring income of the firm. “Gina is a critical and respected member of our team, who has effectively earned the reputation as property management operations specialist,” says Randel Waites, Avison Young U.S. REMS managing director. “She has helped us develop stronger and more effective programs benefiting the entire team and our clients.”
Gina Iverson
Jill Higgins has focused her career on the principle that healthcare real estate is all about relationships, and her skill at listening to her employees and providing mentorship has contributed to Anchor Health Properties’ high retention rate. Higgins oversees the firm’s property management department as a partner and EVP, where she has been instrumental in standardizing policies and procedures, including internal platform expectations, contracts, and an internal career development path for property managers. Spearheading the third-party management agreement initiative, Higgins helped cultivate and build a long-term opportunity with a major health system in Pennsylvania and grew the engagement from eight properties totaling 307,712 square feet to 17 properties totaling 849,909 square feet more than five years. Throughout the past 12 months, she has demonstrated exceptional leadership and strategic decision-making in her role restructuring and leading the West Coast team. She is dedicated to staff development, identifying the required staffing structure and property reshuffling, ensuring that resources are allocated optimally and interviewing, hiring, training and mentoring staff. To unite her team, Higgins spearheaded an asset management guidebook and planned and executed the firm’s annual management summit.
Jill Higgins
Jennifer Heede brings a diverse background in real estate and property management gained during more than 22 years in the industry to her role as VP of property management at Newmark Group Inc. She oversees property management operations and personnel in Denver, encompassing more than 3.8 million square feet of commercial real estate. She has substantial expertise in budget preparation, operating expense reconciliations, lease administration, physical management, tenant and client relations and financial reporting. In 2023, Heede worked with a committee of colleagues on the production and development of a property management software solution designed to increase operational efficiencies by automating interdepartmental business processes and tasks while enhancing the employee experience. She increased the number of new business proposals in 2023 by 240% during 2022. Prior to joining Newmark, Heede directed the property management division for Resolute Investments, where she was responsible for all property and asset management activities related to its commercial portfolio. She has served on BOMA’s board of directors, where she helps establish direction and policies for programs and services as well as guiding strategic decisions.
Jennifer Heede
Kim Feliciano started her career as a groundskeeper nearly 20 years ago after relocating from Guayanilla, Puerto Rico, to the mainland U.S. Today, she is the maintenance supervisor for The RMR Group managing the 24-acre, 351-unit Crosswynde Apartments in Tampa. Feliciano is passionate about the impact her work has on residents. In the apartment industry, maintenance issues are often cited as grievances in resident reviews, but Feliciano has minimized complaints and prioritized resident experience. She has actively sought opportunities for personal and professional development throughout her career. As an active member of the Bay Area Apartment Association, she has earned several certifications, including HVAC certification, certified pool operator certification, a certificate for apartment maintenance technicians and an Environmental Protection Agency certification. Most recently, she earned her Fire Watch Certification, which saves her community the expense and hassle of hiring an external vendor in the event of a fire-related incident. When asked to describe her greatest achievement, Feliciano points to failure. “If you can’t make a mistake and learn from it, how can you really know how to avoid the same mistake in the future or feel comfortable breaking the mold and trying something different?” she says. “Failure helps drive innovation.”
Kim Feliciano
Toni Eubanks leads U.S. property management operations as executive director of real estate operations at Greystar. She oversees both third-party and owned real estate operations, including conventional, active adult, student and build for rent totaling 3,000 assets throughout the U.S. and Canada. Her responsibilities include oversight of all areas of operational performance, local new business development and operations support, which includes regional marketing, underwriting, recruiting and construction services. Under her leadership, the property management team launched its on-site centralization program, Elevate, to streamline traditional on-site functions and reduce workflow interruptions so team members can focus on the resident experience. Greystar has continued to grow its managed portfolio under her leadership. She serves on Greystar’s executive committee, is a member of Greystar’s enterprise services advisory board, communications board and benefits committee, along with other leadership roles. Before joining Greystar in 2008, Eubanks was an SVP for Irving-based developer JPI, where she oversaw property operations for the western half of the U.S. and Canada.
Toni Eubanks
When she joined Link Logistics in 2020 amid the pandemic, Bianca Curtis showcased extraordinary leadership skills and decision-making abilities. She assembled a high-performing team while navigating the complexities of a new virtual work environment, and her success propelled her rapid ascent to her current role as VP of property operations within one year of joining the firm. In this role, Curtis oversees property management within Link Logistics’ West region, encompassing the San Francisco Bay Area, Inland Empire, Seattle, Las Vegas, Reno, Phoenix and Denver. With a portfolio comprising 1,153 properties spanning 149,060 million square feet, her role demands meticulous oversight of day-to-day operations, ensuring adherence to company policies, maintaining the region’s overall budget and people management. She leads 67 team members with a collaborative culture and a dedication to mentorship. Curtis recently spearheaded a training initiative called “Customer Experience the Link Way” aimed at defining Link Logistics’ unique approach to customer service within the industrial real estate sector. This training garnered a positive reception from her team, empowering them to enhance customer service standards and effectively meet customer needs.
Bianca Curtis
Kia Crooms has more than 25 years of experience managing diverse multifamily portfolios and supporting recently acquired property groups with employee development, value-add strategies and maximizing returns for owners. As an area VP at Morgan Properties, one of the nation’s largest multifamily owners and operators, Crooms oversees leasing, maintenance, management and operations for nearly 6,700 units across 18 apartment communities in Illinois, Indiana and Michigan. She has been integral to the company’s growth from the 25th largest apartment owner to one of the top three in the country. Crooms joined Morgan Properties as a property manager in the Ohio area, where she leased and stabilized a 986-unit high-rise community in Cleveland, earning her a promotion to regional property manager overseeing 11 communities across multiple states. Today, as area VP of the Midwest region, Crooms was selected to help manage the company’s recent acquisitions of seven communities in Indiana and three in Illinois. Throughout the past year, she has grown occupancy and enhanced her region’s online reputation. This had an incremental lift for Morgan Properties as a whole, as the company was recently named one of the top 10 most improved NMHC 50 Managers by Online Reputation Assessment.
Kia Crooms
Although Hiffman National associate director of management services Shawn Brown spent most of her career in office and industrial sectors with limited experience in retail, she volunteered to take on the monumental task of growing and managing a client’s newly acquired, 38-asset retail center portfolio in 2020. Brown stepped outside her comfort zone and embraced the challenge, building a new retail team and right-sizing operations as well as managing a portfolio laden with deferred maintenance and outdated practices. Her tenacity and problem-solving skills were instrumental in resolving these longstanding issues and fostering a positive client relationship. Brown assists tenants in adapting their marketing strategies, managing finances and finding vendors. When faced with challenging circumstances like the recent closure of Bed, Bath & Beyond stores across the country, Brown collaborated with asset managers to secure temporary tenants like Spirit Halloween, showcasing her ability to think on her feet and find solutions. Described as firm, thoughtful and strategic by her supervisors, Brown fosters a collaborative environment for her team of 13 management professionals and two engineers and maintains strong relationships with all asset managers in the retail portfolio. In addition to her team leadership duties, Brown directly manages five retail centers.
Shawn Brown
Sarah Schwarzschild joined Mavik Capital Management last year as COO and in just a few months has played a crucial role in setting the firm’s short- and long-term strategic vision while also overseeing its day-to-day operations and investment decision-making. She dedicates a significant amount of time to mentoring younger women across the firm and industry. She views effective mentoring as a combination of providing mentees with three different elements depending on their unique needs, from situational advice and problem-solving to support for broader career development and skill-building, as well as sponsorship to advance mentees’ careers. Last year, Schwarzschild led the relaunch of the New York Women in Real Estate networking organization for women in the private equity real estate sector. The New York chapter has grown to 110 members under her leadership. She is also involved with Arche Women’s Network, a professional organization that supports young real estate professionals in the first 10 years of their careers. She recently was featured as the keynote speaker for the organization’s 2024 kickoff event. Schwarzschild serves on the mentorship committee of WX, an invitation-only executive organization that promotes the advancement of women in the real estate industry, where she helps pair interns with meaningful mentors.
Sarah Schwarzschild
In addition to navigating complex financial matters for Anchin, Block, and Anchin LLP as an audit director, Rebecca Long is a mentor who provides guidance and support to team members. She collaborates closely with junior staff, fostering their professional development, and actively engages in the firm’s mentorship program where she shares her expertise to guide career growth. Long was selected to participate in Anchin’s rainmaker business development program, a leadership and thought leadership program for accounting professionals. She is also the co-chair of the Anchin Women’s Initiative Network, through which she coordinates and participates in firm events, networking, mentoring and professional development training with other women in the industry. She is an active member of Girl Gang and CREW NY. “Rebecca’s leadership and mentorship are the cornerstone of our real estate team,” says Anchin partner and real estate group lead Rob Gilman. “Her extensive industry knowledge, hands-on approach, and unwavering commitment to mentoring the team make her an invaluable asset, adding significant value to every aspect of our firm.”
Rebecca Long
Laura Klein’s dedication to cultivating leaders goes beyond the traditional scope of mentorship. As COO of Casoro Group, Klein is a key member of the senior executive team that structures, develops and manages the multifamily real estate investment firm. Recognizing the long-term value of investing time in personal and professional development, she implemented a program to elevate team members’ ability to communicate and manage challenges. The leadership development program has become a cornerstone of the firm’s commitment to talent development, attracting and retaining top candidates while enhancing the overall effectiveness of its leadership team. Klein’s engagement with the Bastrop Education Foundation underscores her commitment to educational initiatives and community development, and she contributes her expertise and resources to support educational programs, fostering a positive impact on the local community’s learning environment. In addition, as a member of Executive Blackbelt, Klein aligns herself with a network of professionals dedicated to advancing their careers through leadership development and networking. Her involvement in this organization demonstrates her commitment to continuous learning, professional growth and the exchange of insights with other accomplished executives.
Laura Klein
Luxury Living co-founder and CEO Amy Galvin leads the company with an empathetic, compassionate and service- centered approach. Her background as a certified professional coach and a trained facilitator of The Fair Play Method, coupled with her experience as a working mother, has laid the groundwork for her unique leadership approach that focuses on coaching real estate agents rather than a directive management style. Previously, she was the company’s chief culture officer, a role that continues to influence her leadership methods. Aside from Luxury Living, Galvin produced a conference in Chicago for International Women’s Day, hosted several workshops throughout the year to support women in business, and produces a podcast that supports working moms. She strongly advocates for mentoring women in business and is a mentor with the JCC’s Women inPower program, a fellowship program pairing seasoned and experienced Chicago area female leaders in professional sectors with mid-career participants to provide peer support, mentorship, training and coaching. She also mentors with the Goldie Initiative, which prepares women for senior leadership roles in commercial real estate by providing scholarship support for graduate study, mentorship and networking opportunities to women with high potential who are committed to becoming leaders in the industry.
Amy Galvin
The RMR Group regional manager for residential Julia Furber is responsible for six apartment communities in Florida and recently won the company’s property manager of the year award for her leadership and ability to deliver value. She is known for her genuine engagement with others and is described as a role model. Notably, she led her teams in weathering the aftermath of Hurricane Ian in September 2022, guiding residents and her property teams in Florida. When one of the communities flooded, destroying the apartment homes of 80 families, Furber worked on-site for weeks, communicating with each resident and helping them find housing at sister communities. She then collaborated with her on-site colleagues to help move residents back into their homes and leased other apartments to ensure the financial stability of the community. Furber has a track record of excellent leadership that extends beyond her daily responsibilities to include mentorship. With her support, her team members have received promotions and company awards, including property manager of the year, leasing associate of the year and maintenance technician of the year. Furber leads a team of 53 individuals.
Julia Furber
As a veteran of the CRE industry and a woman of color, Collete English Dixon strives to help students maneuver being diverse participants in an industry that she says is still not very diverse. English Dixon is the executive director of the Marshall Bennett Institute of Real Estate at Roosevelt University in Chicago. She is the first woman of color to lead a university-based real estate education program in the country. Prior to this role, English Dixon spent two decades at PGIM Real Estate working on acquisitions, development, dispositions, debt on joint venture properties and asset management, completing more than $12 billion in real estate transactions. Numerous students credit English Dixon’s mentorship and guidance as a key reason for their success. For example, a May 2023 MSRE graduate recently says the amazing support system she had at MBIRE helped her attain her CMCP certification and earn a promotion. English Dixon hosted a two-week summer immersion program where diverse high school students learned about careers in commercial real estate, toured properties in Chicago and worked in teams on development proposals that were presented to local industry professionals.
Collete English Dixon
Colleagues say Dianne Crocker has a natural gift for supporting others and is a proven mentor admired by many in the commercial real estate industry. Crocker founded and built the LightBox Developing Leaders Mentor program. Under her leadership, the program has graduated more than 100 young professionals, many of whom are women seeking direction and support not available within their own firms. Crocker’s work on the mentorship program led to the creation of LightBox’s annual PRISM awards, which honor leadership, community spirit and young leader potential. She also applied her experience with the Developing Leaders program to co-chair the first year of LightBox’s Women’s Inspiration Network. Crocker volunteers extensively with her CREW network chapter as a mentor and delegate and is an informal mentor to countless other women who seek out her advice with their own career challenges. In her role as the principal analyst at Lightbox, she leads the company’s market research and forecast reports and recently developed and launched LightBox’s new series of quarterly CRE Market Snapshot reports.
Dianne P. Crocker
Drawing on lessons she learned both as a mentee and a mentor throughout her career, Leslie Cohen has created and implemented a strong mentorship infrastructure at the Davis Cos., where she is COO. During an uncertain time for the commercial real estate industry, Cohen emphasized the firm’s culture, mission and employee expertise more than a focus on the bottom line. Early in her career, she often found herself the only woman in the room, which motivated her to seek opportunities to connect with other women in the CRE space. She worked tirelessly to overcome misperceptions about her talent and abilities, to establish her own network and to earn the respect of her peers and colleagues. Cohen created a DEI Committee that introduced a unique program at Davis that cultivates an environment for mentors and mentees to thrive through meaningful connections and collaboration. The six-month rotating mentor program encourages senior staff to invest in the growth and success of those at the junior level as part of efforts to support recruitment and retention at the firm. The program focuses on cross-department collaboration, professional development and networking.
Leslie Cohen
Transwestern Real Estate Services EVP and Midwest operations director Bonnie Boden has mentored many rising stars throughout her career. She was key to the MB Real Estate acquisition, onboarding more than 10 million square feet of office space and several City of Chicago properties, including Maggie Daley Park, the Chicago Riverwalk and Millennium Park, which added 180 team members to her team. Boden spearheaded a thoughtful orientation and training program for all team members as well as one-on-one check-in sessions. MBRE team members shared how supported they felt through the transition and how easily they acclimated to the Transwestern team culture. In her role, Boden shares her extensive experience in people management, talent development, financial reporting, construction management, property transitions, physical operations, lease administration, long-range planning and contract management. She created the Transwestern Academy program, an opportunity for junior members of management and engineering teams to learn and network together while touring projects and properties. Boden has also been a BOMA faculty member since 2009 and she was an official mentor in BOMA/Chicago and BOMA/Suburban Chicago in 2023. She unofficially mentors several other Transwestern and non-TW real estate professionals in Chicago.
Bonnie Boden
Holly Yang has extensive experience strengthening brands for large corporate real estate companies, identifying and nurturing marketing talent and advocating for a strong team culture to achieve success. She joined Grubb Properties in 2020, bringing decades of international institutional experience and has been instrumental in repositioning the firm as a national force in multifamily real estate investment and development. Since joining Grubb Properties, Yang has fully rebranded the company while leading the investor marketing strategy for the launch and close of its Fund VII and the Link Apartments Opportunity Zone REIT, a consolidation of three previous Opportunity Zone REIT funds. In addition, she has synergized the Grubb Properties and Link Apartments brand identities, creating a more unified company and powering the company’s go-to-market presence. She has been promoted to the senior level of managing director, is part of the 12-person executive committee and presents periodically to the board on marketing results. Before joining Grubb Properties, Yang lived in Singapore and worked across the Asia Pacific and globally for more than 20 years, serving as CMO, Asia Pacific, for Cushman & Wakefield and international director at JLL.
Holly Yang
After leading the development of Avison Young’s new brand and visual identity in 2020, managing internal stakeholders and external agency partners, global director of corporate marketing Katie Woodside founded Avison Young’s Brand Hub. The Brand Hub is the firm’s global brand and corporate marketing team, which focuses on the continual development and application of Avison Young’s visual identity and brand positioning, as well as the development of global campaigns and go-to-market materials. The Brand Hub delivered several brand-elevating projects in 2023, including Avison Young’s 2023 impact report “Portraits of Progress,” which included a partnership with Women Photograph, a nonprofit whose mission is to elevate the voices of women and nonbinary visual journalists across the globe. The project won seven Platinum MarCom Awards, including recognition for outstanding achievements in content, design and photography. Woodside also spearheaded a new branding strategy for the firm’s employee resource groups, creating brand alignment, consistency and positioning to enable talent attraction and retention. She has dedicated her career to Avison Young, from her early days as part of the Washington D.C. marketing team to her current leadership position. In recognition of her tenure with the firm and her brand-elevating achievements, she was named principal in 2023.
Katie Woodside
With a post-COVID-19 shift in the office market, Brookfield Properties tasked SVP of marketing Katie Williams with devising a comprehensive marketing strategy that would showcase not only Brookfield’s unique strengths as an office operator but also make the case for why office matters. Rather than telling people why office matters, she showed them. Her team leveraged tenant employees as spokespeople to deliver authentic messages about the value of in-person environments for community, culture and career development. The “Life is Better in Person” campaign featured engaging, high-energy videos and images of individuals and teams sharing experiences and building relationships across Brookfield’s campuses. The campaign reached more than 370,000 people and secured 60% above-average engagement and impression rates. Williams leads a team of 34 marketing, design and events professionals who support more than 100 assets. Her recent national marketing efforts are focused on sustainability and tenant engagement. For sustainability, in 2023, she created and launched a campaign to announce Brookfield’s commitment to transition its entire U.S. office portfolio to zero-emissions electricity. For tenant engagement, she is responsible for Activated, Brookfield’s national platform that organizes and hosts hundreds of tenant activations across its properties. She has nearly 20 years of experience in the industry.
Katie M. Williams
In 2023, Vanessa Williams’ team completed 12,744 projects, collaborated on 901 property marketing brands, authored more than 700 comprehensive research reports and produced 445 team pieces. In addition, they crafted 764 press releases, 216 advertisements and 1,073 social media posts. Williams is senior director of business development and marketing for Colliers’ West region responsible for orchestrating the efforts of a team of more than 60 marketing and research professionals as well as seasoned business development professionals who serve as strategic advisors to both Colliers’ brokers and clients. This team collaborates closely with national marketing and research leaders to implement region-specific initiatives, leveraging cutting-edge technology and best-in-class marketing methodologies. She lends her expertise to advancing technology within Colliers’ operations by serving on the national technology advisory committee, where her insights contribute to shaping the organization’s technological landscape and strategic direction. Williams is a member of NAIOP, where she serves on the communications committee. In addition, she is dedicated to nurturing the next generation of professionals through her role as a mentor in Colliers’ national mentorship program.
Vanessa Williams
More than half of Elena Wall’s 13-year career in commercial real estate has been with Simon CRE, where she most recently was EVP of operations. Wall started as the only member of the firm’s marketing department at the Scottsdale, AZ-based retail developer and has built a strong brand and a team to maintain it. She oversaw the development of marketing strategies and collateral for the company and its properties and created an organizational structure that ranges from standardizing procedures and establishing solid documentation across all projects to effective internal and external communication. Wall has the proven ability to change environments, practices and minds through tools and systems, including laying the groundwork for efficient deal tracking, establishing and maintaining the customer relationship management database, integrating marketing automation and executing a comprehensive social media strategy. She spearheaded marketing efforts to create a unique brand for SimonCRE’s subsidiary companies and projects, including the more than 700,000-square-foot power center Village at Prasada in Surprise, AZ. Outside of the office, Wall lends her creativity to friends and family with their branding needs, including for a communications/media relations company, an auto body shop and a local bar. At the time of publication, Wall is no longer at SimonCRE.
Elena Wall
Christina Twidale leads the Kidder Mathews marketing department, including the corporate marketing group and regional brokerage marketing and operations across 19 offices in Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona and Nevada. Twidale started her career at Kidder Mathews nearly 18 years ago in Seattle working as a marketing assistant and graphic designer on the corporate marketing team. As Kidder Mathews experienced growth down the West Coast, her role evolved from marketing director to VP of marketing and now SVP of marketing. She played a pivotal role in shaping the overall branding and marketing strategy at Kidder Mathews, including helping build and lead the design team responsible for shaping Kidder Mathews’ current image by establishing clear brand standards, designing templates and developing brokerage marketing training programs across the company. She also has helped lead the company through four unique rebrands, with the most recent in 2019 celebrating the firm’s 50-year anniversary. In addition, Twidale oversaw the day-to-day production of high-level and custom brokerage marketing projects including pitches, proposals, presentations, listing materials and collateral. Under her leadership, the team established a benchmark for creating top-quality materials in the market, with brokers consistently pointing to the marketing department as a major driver of their success.
Christina Twidale
One of Missy Teague’s earliest achievements at Merritt Properties was developing its property search iPhone app, the first of its kind offered by a private commercial real estate developer in the country. She was eager to leverage technology to enhance customer experience and accessibility, recognizing early on the shift toward mobile-first strategies in consumer behavior. Teague has spent 16 years at Merritt Properties, serving today as director of marketing and corporate communications. She continues to push beyond traditional media outlets to embrace technology and digital marketing landscapes to transform the company’s approach to marketing. Teague established Merritt’s tech roundtable, which convenes a cross-functional team to evaluate, test and implement cutting-edge technologies to determine those that could truly support leasing and tenant retention. She also spearheaded the development, branding and launch of Merge by Merritt, a digital and onsite employee amenity program designed to differentiate Merritt’s office buildings from the competition by helping tenants meet the challenge of attracting and retaining top talent. Most recently, Teague was tapped to develop Merritt’s first comprehensive Environmental, Sustainability & Governance report. She oversees an annual marketing budget of $4.2 million, including advertising, public relations, lead generation, digital marketing, social media and more.
Missy Teague
Nicole Stenclik has been a member of Akrete’s leadership team and its executive committee for the past six years as both a VP and managing consultant. She was recently named as the agency’s first president in January 2024 to lead the national public relations agency’s client service and operations as well as media relations functions. Specializing in real estate, finance and professional services, the 30-person Akrete team achieves national business and trade media exposure, writes complex content and provides strategic marketing and public relations advisory services. Stenclik works behind the scenes providing communications counsel to CEOs and other C-suite executives as they navigate messaging in times of change and when announcing major transactions and initiatives. She is known for her approachability and for prioritizing open communication channels with her teams and clients. Stenclik brings deep experience in steering notable national and global brands toward top-tier media attention, both at Akrete and earlier in her career when she held prominent B2B public relations roles in New York and Boston. She also leads the formation of new client partnerships and serves as one of the firm’s top experts responsible for Akrete maintaining its leading industry status, particularly in commercial real estate.
Nicole Stenclik
A veteran marketer in the multifamily industry, Kelly Siegal pushes the boundaries of the traditional approach to property marketing. She has more than 20 years of strategic marketing and ad agency experience across hospitality, travel/tourism, consumer goods, beauty, legal/financial and real estate, including more than eight years of direct multifamily experience. Prior to her work at Greystar, she revamped the marketing department for Alliance Residential and created an in-house ad and digital agency, turning a fragmented structure into a unified marketing engine that increased renter demand and strengthened property and company economics. In 2020, Greystar acquired Alliance’s property management business and Siegal was brought in as managing director of marketing for the U.S. property management division, where she built Greystar’s first creative services team as well as strengthened the digital marketing team. Siegal achieved favorable results across media channels for Greystar properties in 2023. Despite significant increases in competition and ad bid cost, the digital marketing team increased Greystar’s paid search conversion rate by 68%, decreased its cost per acquisition by 8% for the year, and increased average acquisitions per property by 13.8%.
Kelly Siegal
When Alliance Global Advisors launched in 2020, it brought on Masha Rzoski to oversee marketing strategies to elevate the firm’s visibility. As director of marketing, she leads all marketing efforts for Alliance and the firm’s client base. For Alliance, her responsibilities include managing mass communications and social media campaigns, creating a marketing plan and budget, managing and updating the website and keeping the partners informed on all speaking/ panel opportunities at upcoming conferences. She also develops blogs and podcasts on key topics in real estate investments, regulations and industry trends, and contributes to numerous reports. Rzoski launched the Alliance Global Advisors and Institutional Real Estate Inc. Masterclass series, partnering with IREI and other thought leaders on a virtual six-session course covering topics that enhance knowledge of the industry, investment universe and vehicle structuring. She also supports philanthropy and education programs, such as Alliance Gives Back through which the firm has provided thought leadership presentations to numerous universities. She began her career at the Townsend Group in 2004, advising institutional clients in strategic planning, quarterly reporting, consulting and underwriting of real estate funds. She later transitioned to the investment manager side, focusing on marketing and capital raising.
Masha Rzoski
Sofia Royce has been instrumental in helping The Brand Guild grow its commercial real estate business from three to 15 people with specialists that focus on neighborhoods, residences, retail expansion, office and experiential PR. Royce is AVP of public relations at the firm where she builds partnerships with developers who are leveling up residential, office, retail and mixed-use developments into thriving projects that make a lasting impact on their cities and communities. Her role includes creating PR strategies, earned and paid media outreach, corporate communications, crisis and issues communications, and messaging and media training, for industry leaders across all project stages. Working alongside the events team, she has helped drive consistent foot traffic to neighborhoods by storytelling around creative activations for companies such as Fever and SoFi. In addition, her work has made The Wharf one of the most widely covered mixed-use neighborhoods in the country after she led a campaign to secure regional and national recognition for the Washington D.C. neighborhood. She oversees nearly 50 million square feet of active CRE development projects with a success rate of securing an average of 10 million earned media impressions for a 6-month engagement.
Sofia Royce
Emily Pollard joined BKM Capital Partners in 2015 as a marketing specialist and now serves as senior director of marketing and communications following several promotions. She is credited with establishing the corporate marketing and communications department at BKM, where she leads a four-person team responsible for executing insight-driven marketing strategies across several channels. Pollard spearheads BKM’s marketing, media and communications, including tactical planning and execution on the company’s advertising, public relations and various communication strategies. During her 9-year tenure with the firm, she has played a major role in exponentially growing the firm’s reputation, brand and process management, each an instrumental aspect of BKM’s core operations and direct influence on the company’s success. Prior to finding her niche in commercial real estate, Pollard worked in a range of industries including fashion and publishing in New York City, and nonprofit, banking and government contracting roles in Washington D.C. Working in these industries armed her with the experience, agility and diversity needed to help scale and grow BKM within the light industrial asset class.
Emily Pollard
Hannah Miet owns Hannah Miet Consulting LLC, which provides content strategy and writing services. She has more than 15 years of experience in editorial roles and business journalism as well as four years overseeing in-house content at JLL. During the pandemic, she was part of JLL’s content task force that produced 20 articles on urgent pandemic-related issues. Miet is skilled at conveying content that positions clients as experts while paring down the complexity of commercial real estate to provide actionable intelligence. Deliverables include bylines and white papers. In the past year, she wrote about rising insurance costs for Avison Young, debt and the state of the office market for Urban Land, and green data centers for a developer. As a messaging consultant, she helped several PropTech companies develop messaging and positioning that addresses current industry pain points and helps them stand out during a challenging time. She and her husband invest in commercial real estate and have a stake in a hotel and shopping center. In addition, she founded the West Coast wing of the Real Deal and has won several awards for her writing, including first place from the Los Angeles Press Club for best feature.
Hannah Miet
Within her first year at LCS Inc., Liz Mahoney was promoted to oversee the entire sales and marketing division, a testament to her leadership and strategic thinking. After only three years, her innovative approaches have significantly increased brand awareness and client engagement for LCS, showcasing her ability to drive results and adapt quickly to rapid market changes. Mahoney is SVP and director of sales and business development where she develops, executes and manages the company’s sales and marketing plan. She is responsible for setting strategic goals, nurturing existing client relationships and establishing new ones. She also identifies business opportunities, monitors market conditions and analyzes competitor activities to ensure LCS remains competitive and innovative. Mahoney has implemented cutting-edge marketing campaigns that have significantly enhanced the company’s visibility and reputation in the market, and her adoption of new technologies and AI programs has revolutionized LCS’s approach to brand awareness, enabling more efficient and effective marketing strategies. This has led to an increase in LCS’s deal volume and client satisfaction. Mahoney also is the director of communications for her CREW NY chapter as well as the chair for communications for the MBA of NY. Under her guidance, both organizations have seen substantial growth in their social presence and member engagement.
Liz Mahoney
Angie Leccese has worked her way through many marketing functions during her two decades in the field, gathering hands-on experience and a comprehensive understanding of the industry that benefits her in her current leadership role as Newmark’s first CMO. Leccese oversees Newmark’s marketing and business development efforts, playing a pivotal role in shaping the company’s growth trajectory. Her core responsibilities include planning, developing and executing Newmark’s comprehensive marketing and business development strategy and driving growth through innovative content marketing strategies and sales enablement practices. Among her accomplishments are unifying a previously scattered global marketing team of more than 200, streamlining operations and aligning strategies, integrating a sales automation tool and CRM-integrated system for marketing materials, and revamping Newmark’s brand visuals with more than 100 new templates and images to boost brand consistency. Leccese focuses on creating compelling content and ensuring that this content effectively supports Newmark’s sales efforts throughout the entire sales cycle. Her leadership ensures that marketing efforts align with the company’s business objectives, enhancing Newmark’s ability to capture new opportunities and drive revenue growth.
Angie Leccese
In the seven years she has been at Greystar, Liza Kunkel has taken a team of two members to a team of 20 while ensuring all global corporate communications needs are met. As managing director of communications, she played a critical role in overseeing communications around the COVID-19 pandemic, and more recently, economic uncertainty. She led an effort to create “BobTV,” where Greystar founder and CEO Bob Faith updated and helped guide all global team members surrounding macroeconomic issues. She also shapes Greystar’s external reputation in concert with her external communications team, which is responsible for all public-facing activity, including media relations, thought leadership, awards entries and social media. Recently, the team shifted its approach from primarily reactive communications to proactive communications to reflect an evolving corporate strategy that has tripled its earned media coverage and increased interviews by 60% in the past year. Kunkel also assisted in executing two brand launches and media campaigns in 2023 for Modern Living Solutions and Ltd. by Greystar. These campaigns resulted in 16 earned media placements, two exclusive stories and an audience reach of more than six million people. Kunkel joined Greystar in 2017 from Blackstone, where she was a director of global public affairs.
Liza Kunkel
Bozzuto SVP of corporate communications Chintimini Keith excels in brand and reputation protection and oversees crisis communications for a portfolio of more than 100,000 apartment units. In 2019, Chintimini spearheaded and launched a thoughtful brand development process, creating a program called Rise by Bozzuto, which unites employees, residents, partners and clients around a corporate social responsibility strategy. The program continues to grow and embrace initiatives that contribute to the company’s triple bottom line such as sustainability, employee engagement, diversity, equity and inclusion, and corporate charitable giving. In 2020, Rise by Bozzuto allowed the company to quickly enact a campaign to help those most deeply impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In conjunction with Bozzuto’s 35th anniversary, Rise by Bozzuto launched its Q2 initiative, “35 Years of Service.” Nearly 200 associates came together to make an impact on local neighborhoods through different housing projects; collectively touching the lives of more than 400 individuals, including four families, four community centers, a youth group home, and a community garden that helps feed an entire community in Maryland. Keith is a member and former board member of Washington Women in Public Relations and she currently serves on the Baltimore Women’s Advisory Board.
Chintimini M. Keith
Nicolette Jaze crafts comprehensive sustainability frameworks and decarbonization programs across all property types and asset classes in her role as head of ESG and sustainability at Galvanize Sustainable Real Estate. Jaze and her team work with in-house climate technology and science experts as well as third-party vendors with decarbonization expertise to analyze the local energy landscape, assess emissions associated with key upgrades and establish a granular strategy for each building. EPIC GOLD, which Jaze and her team created in partnership with architecture firm EHDD, helps the Galvanize Real Estate team mine the U.S. market for locations with both high potential for decarbonization and strong real estate fundamentals. The team targets 100% emissions reduction within three years of asset ownership and a portion of her team’s compensation is tied to meeting this target. Jaze was an early pioneer in developing comprehensive ESG strategies across the real estate sector. She was previously with Esusu Financial, where she was head of client engagement, communications and ESG. Before Esusu, she spent 15 years in sustainability roles at Goldman Sachs and Moody’s Corp.
Nicolette Jaze
Leeza Hoyt’s self-made success underscores her resilience, leadership and commitment to making a positive impact on the communications industry and her community. For more than 25 years, Hoyt has led the PR agency she founded, the Hoyt Organization (THO), as its president where she provides strategic leadership, client acquisition and management, and creative direction. Raised in a real estate family, Hoyt’s early passion for real estate communications has shaped THO’s focus, with real estate remaining a cornerstone vertical of the agency in addition to healthcare, technology, construction and education. In the past year, she has expanded the agency’s team and roster of clients after weathering the pandemic. She continues to support the growth of the communications sector locally and globally through her work with the Public Relations Global Network as its director of marketing, a volunteer leadership role through which she has grown the marketing committee from a one-woman team to a ten-person committee. Hoyt has made pro bono support of nonprofit clients like Old Blue Inc. and Bringing Hope to the Family USA a pillar of her business approach.
Leeza Hoyt
Avison Young U.S. media relations manager Sandra Hill seeks to identify key trends and significant opportunities for earned media that build national brand exposure for the company while empowering her regional media relations team with responsibility for a variety of local and regional markets in multiple geographies. She is responsible for securing national mainstream, business and trade media coverage and goes above and beyond to make long-standing connections with reporters, study trends and strategize with Avison Young’s market insight experts, business sector leaders and the global communications team to provide information that will be of interest to the greater real estate community. She has led successful media campaigns showcasing the firm’s technology capabilities, milestone acquisitions and business sector/community impact storylines that have earned media placements across trades, business and mainstream publications and broadcast outlets. Hill began her career with Avison Young in the firm’s Houston office where she led public relations initiatives and external communications efforts in the greater Houston area. Prior to Avison Young, she had a diverse media and government relations career that included communication roles in the U.S. government with U.S. Senator Phil Gramm and later with Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich.
Sandra Hill
Christine Gustafson is the first female executive at The Breeden Co. where she is VP of public relations and marketing. Since joining the firm in 2020, Gustafson has elevated the previously quiet and humble firm’s branding and messaging to national recognition. She launched an aggressive national marketing campaign to educate industry experts in the construction, multifamily and commercial real estate realms as well as residents in the submarkets where the company works about Breeden’s attention to detail and quality work. The campaign, which incorporated digital, social and print media, drove website traffic up nearly 60%, goal conversions up 8% and completions up 66%. Gustafson is responsible for enterprisewide marketing and corporate communications for all aspects of the organization, including marketing, advertising, product development, corporate communications, social and traditional media engagement, and community engagement activities. She single-handedly redeveloped 42 multifamily portfolio community websites in 30 days so that each is dynamic and customized to the community and its demographics. With her determination to streamline digital resources, she has saved the multifamily division more than $100,000 annually.
Christine Gustafson
Crexi CMO Courtney Ettus leverages 25 years of marketing expertise in Fortune 500 companies and startups to bring a unique perspective to the commercial real estate industry. She plays a pivotal role in leading Crexi’s marketing efforts and advancing the company’s mission to modernize the CRE industry and streamline the transaction process through innovative technology solutions. Ettus oversees all national brand and acquisition marketing to bring new markets, brokers, buyers and tenants to its technology platform and help solidify Crexi as a household name within the industry. Her team is responsible for brand activations, product activations, advertising, sales collateral and creative vision. Ettus also continues to adjust the company’s strategic efforts across departments to stay relevant in the current cultural landscape. She supports the company’s fundraising and talent acquisition efforts and has made a positive impact on company culture that has translated into talent retention, business growth and overall company success. She has a history of leading integrated marketing and strategy teams and has helped grow the Crexi team to more than 300 people. Ettus regularly mentors start-up companies, including the Grid 110 accelerator companies, on start-up marketing, helping them navigate the marketing landscape with few resources and by providing general counsel for their businesses.
Courtney Ettus
Pairing a passion for the environment with expertise in management and communications, PACE Equity SVP of strategy and impact Tricia Baker leads strategic planning, marketing and sustainability efforts for the C-PACE lender. Baker manages the CIRRUS Low Carbon financial tool that helps CRE projects earn a lower cost of capital to fund building improvements that result in lower carbon output. Under her leadership of CIRRUS Low Carbon, 11 commercial real estate developments nationwide have been verified since the product’s introduction to the market in 2022, saving a total of more than 66,000 metric tons of carbon over their weighted average life. Recognizing the importance of creative financing solutions for developers, Baker forged two significant partnerships in 2023 to make C-PACE funding more accessible to CRE developers, including a collaboration between PACE Equity and Calvert Impact Climate Inc. to bring the Cut Carbon Note to market as a public offering. Baker also forged a partnership with Phius, a nonprofit organization committed to making high-performance passive building the mainstream market standard. Baker manages the marketing function with 40% year-over-year growth in key marketing metrics using unique strategies to drive awareness and lead generation. Outside of work, she is a content writer and trail maintenance volunteer for the Ice Age National Scenic Trail.
Tricia Baker
Jenny Zhan founded alternative investment management firm Beyond Global Management and leads all areas of the business and operations as its CEO. She brings more than 20 years of investment experience focused on institutional investing and managing multi-asset strategies to her role. As a CFA, she specializes in international wealth management and has managed investments in real estate assets and global equities markets for large institutional investors. Zhan founded Beyond to make professionally managed real estate investments accessible to a broader range of investors. The firm currently manages $350 million in assets across 18 private equity/credit funds, which includes diverse, well-structured investments in real estate equity and credit products. Through her involvement and expertise in the EB-5 programs and investment migration, Zhan has helped her clients get involved in U.S. projects targeting rural and urban high-unemployment areas, where opportunities for housing and job creation qualify for investment through the program and offer a path to legal U.S. residency. For example, Beyond is currently working with a developer designing micro-unit apartments in a desirable neighborhood in the downtown Los Angeles area.
Jenny Zhan
After joining Hudson Valley Property Group in 2019 as director of portfolio management, Laura Yanushpolsky developed processes and implemented structured oversight for the firm’s portfolio. With an ability to discern overarching trends within the portfolio, she quickly identified opportunities to increase asset value and enhance investment performance. Her success led to a promotion to director of asset management in 2023, assuming responsibility for overseeing an affordable housing portfolio that experienced significant growth despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. With oversight of a portfolio comprising 10,650 units across 75 properties spanning eight states, Yanushpolsky ensures the effective execution of business plans tailored to each property, including management of asset performance and financial outcomes and implementing value-add strategies. She also supervises property valuations and communicates performance metrics to stakeholders, fostering transparency and informed decision-making. She has played a pivotal role in securing $292 million in capital commitments for the firm’s second fund, which closed in 2022. Yanushpolsky has scaled and executed the delivery of impactful resident services across HVPG’s portfolio including providing free or reduced-cost WiFi and credit score enhancement opportunities for residents through programs such as Esusu and Pinata.
Laura Yanushpolsky
With a well-rounded background during her 12-year career, particularly a deep understanding of investment strategy, capital formation and transaction experience, Christie Wootton has risen through the ranks at Greystar and now is the firm’s managing director of portfolio management. Throughout the past 12 months, she has played a critical role in the formation and growth of Greystar’s build-for-rent platform to more than 1,500 homes. In addition, she has been the lead portfolio manager for Greystar’s development-led life science venture, which has an identified pipeline of $2.4 billion in the Boston market. Last year, Wootton began a new role under the leadership of Greystar’s CIO overseeing the company’s strategic partnerships globally, representing $30 billion in active equity under management. Wootton chairs the investment committee for the Coastal Community Foundation of South Carolina and serves as a member of its board of directors. She also is a key leader in Greystar’s Project Destined initiative, an effort that inspires young, underserved students to pursue careers in commercial real estate. Wootton earned the Chartered Financial Analyst designation and is a member of the CFA Society of South Carolina.
Christie Wootton
Pamela West and her team at Nuveen Real Estate have doubled the firm’s portfolio of affordable housing assets to $6.4 billion under management in the past year. The group now manages 161 affordable housing assets including 32,000 apartments in 24 states. West is a managing director who leads the real estate impact investment strategy at Nuveen, bringing 25 years of experience to her role, including the execution of more than $15 billion of transactions in acquisitions, dispositions, financing and asset management. At Nuveen, West oversees the sourcing, execution and portfolio management of the firm’s impact-investing housing platform and is heavily involved in community-focused organizations. Previously, she was the regional head of acquisitions and asset management for TH Real Estate, a Nuveen subsidiary, where she managed more than $2.8 billion of class A/B multifamily assets. West is a board member of the Real Estate Executive Council, Bold Charter Schools in the Bronx, Veritas Impact Partners and the City Parks Foundation in New York. Alongside these organizations, she serves on real estate advisory boards for the Leonard W. Wood Center for Real Estate Studies and the Cooper Housing Institute.
Pamela West
Since joining CBRE Investment Management two years ago, Sondra Wenger has led key transactions for the national team in the life sciences, self-storage, medical and responsive office and retail sectors. She has led her team to invest $7.8 billion in total capitalization to date and currently manages $13.5 billion in assets under management. Wenger is head of the Americas commercial operator division for CBRE IM where she is responsible for the overall leadership, strategic vision and growth of the firm’s commercial real estate investments in the Americas, including overseeing transactions, asset management and development for these sectors. She holds key positions within the organization, serving as a member of the Americas investment committee for commercial direct real estate, the CBRE scientific advisory board and the portfolio oversight committee. In the past 12 months, her total transaction volume was $1.2 billion in capitalized transactions. Notable transactions include the acquisition of the MacArthur Park grocery-anchored neighborhood center in Dallas in partnership with retail owner EDENS. Wenger serves on the board of the New York Restoration Project, whose mission is to revitalize underserved green spaces to enhance the quality of life for the surrounding community.
Sondra Wenger
Carly Tripp’s leadership was recognized in 2021 when she was promoted to global chief investment officer at Nuveen Real Estate, a role in which she oversees and expands the firm’s global real estate portfolio. During the past three years, she has grown the portfolio to $150 billion from $133 billion in assets under management. Tripp leads a team of more than 350 investment professionals responsible for all transactional and asset management functions. She is accountable for sourcing, investment performance, strategic investments, partner relationships and representing Nuveen Real Estate with global clients, consultants and the industry. She has expanded the firm’s presence in key market sectors, including medical office, multifamily, and most recently affordable housing and self-storage. Last year, Tripp and her team completed an acquisition of a large portfolio of affordable housing assets that increased the value of Nuveen’s affordable AUM by $6.4 billion. Prior to her current position, she served as the CIO of the Americas at Nuveen Real Estate. As one of the few female C-suite executives in commercial real estate today, Tripp is a member of the LEAD Network, an industry affinity organization that has more than 1,200 members worldwide creating networking opportunities, career sponsorships and growth for professional women at all levels.
Carly Tripp
Amy Stavin joined PPR Capital Management in 2019 as a real estate owned (REO) asset manager and was promoted to director of REO management in 2022. Bringing more than 10 years of experience in acquisition, management and disposition of thousands of assets to her role, Stavin dispositioned 123 REOs resulting in $21.8 million in revenue and an average ROI of 24% in 2023. When her department faced forbearance issues during the pandemic, and an entire portfolio of assets came to a standstill, Stavin and her team reached out to her nationwide network of brokers and investors to disposition the firm’s REO portfolio. By finding a way around this problem, her department avoided a long-term stall, generated revenue for PPR and unloaded carrying costs that the firm had been covering for several properties. In her current role, Stavin manages the acquisition and disposition of REO properties from start to finish, including valuation of tapes prior to bidding and working closely with PPR’s acquisitions team to determine as-is value so they can place bids accordingly. In the past 12 months, she has led a process to bring the REO disposition process in-house, a change that is projected to save PPR upwards of $1 million per year.
Amy Stavin
Avrio Real Estate Credit CEO Vicky Schiff is a career entrepreneur, having founded or co-founded successful firms in the real estate and finance sectors since 1996. Her ventures have included an institutionally supported $400 million real estate fund that also supported women and minority emerging real estate firms; a national boutique investment banking firm that raised more than $6 billion from institutional investors; an investment platform formed in 2009 to create value for investors by acquiring commercial real estate debt and distressed assets; and MREC Management and its co-mingled debt fund, Mosaic Real Estate Credit, which originated $3 billion in various asset classes across the U.S. Her newest venture is Avrio, which offers short-term, first mortgage debt and other structured finance products including B notes, mezzanine debt and preferred equity for the acquisition, refinancing and recapitalization of commercial real estate assets, with loans ranging from $25 million to $150 million. Under her direction, Avrio is nearing the close of its first fund. Schiff was exposed to the real estate business at an early age as her father, Jim Schiff, was a hotel and industrial developer in Las Vegas and she was on the job site of Circus-Circus Hotel as a toddler. Schiff started her first business in 1996 at the age of 30.
Vicky Schiff
Under the guidance of CEO Ellie Perlman, Blue Lake Capital LLC has become one of Inc. 5000’s fastest-growing companies. Colleagues describe her as bold and entrepreneurial with an ability to foster a culture of empowerment and growth. She has led the company through uncertainty and pressure within the multifamily sector, demonstrating resilience, adaptability and strategic foresight to navigate challenges transparently and decisively. She manages the entire team, handling recruitment and the ongoing expansion of personnel, overseeing portfolio growth and the myriad challenges that accompany it, while also driving overall improvements in operational efficiency. Her responsibilities span financial management, marketing and maintaining investor relations, and she maintains a comprehensive understanding of every facet of the business, ensuring its smooth operation and development. She is a mentor and role model to many, sharing her knowledge and experiences to uplift and inspire the next generation of women leaders. Her dedication to fostering diversity, equity and inclusion within the workplace has set a new standard for leadership and made a significant impact on the industry.
Ellie Perlman
Sara Myerson brings more than 15 years of finance, design, development and public-private partnership experience to her role as managing director of investments at MSquared, where she leads the firm’s impact investment strategy and manages its discretionary investment funds. She is a member of the firm’s investment committee, leads the investment team and oversees MSquared’s $225 million real estate investment portfolio. Myerson began her career at Goldman Sachs as an analyst evaluating and structuring mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, divestitures, restructurings, and debt and equity financings for corporate clients in the media, technology and telecommunications sectors. She then served as chief of staff and director of policy at Preservation of Affordable Housing in Boston and director of planning at the Boston Planning and Development Agency where she oversaw the agency’s work related to planning, urban design and zoning with a focus on working in partnership with the community to guide inclusive growth and shape the future of Boston. Myerson also held multiple roles with the City of Boston including executive director of the Office of Olympic Planning, where she led efforts to develop the city’s plans to bid for the 2024 Olympics and Paralympic Games.
Sara Myerson
Throughout Uma Moriarity’s 7-year tenure at CenterSquare Investment Management, she has led the charge in r evolutionizing the firm’s thought leadership platform. As senior investment strategist, she is a core member of CenterSquare’s listed real estate investment team, conducting strategic research into public markets and making investment recommendations for the firm’s $14 billion in assets under management. Moriarity crafts thought leadership pieces on the current macroeconomic environment, real estate valuations in the public and private sectors, and outlooks by specific property sectors. Her popular quarterly REIT Cap-Rate perspective and white papers produced throughout the year solidify her reputation as a trusted industry expert who is frequently sought after to provide industry commentary within the media. Moriarity’s overarching sector expertise also contributed to the launch of CenterSquare’s 2024 Outlook series, which covered key sector updates across listed real estate, private equity real estate and private real estate debt. In addition, as senior investment strategist and global ESG lead, Moriarity drives strategic initiatives across multiple investment teams and is in charge of structuring the firm’s ESG program, all while still playing a significant role in leading CenterSquare’s brand development. She was also recently appointed to CenterSquare’s debt investment committee and is currently the youngest partner at the firm.
Uma Moriarity
A well-known and respected leader in the student housing industry, Madison Meier is SVP and head of capital markets at Cardinal Group Cos., bringing 15 years of experience to her role. She is responsible for all fundraising and capital markets activities and is a member of its executive leadership team, investment committee and a team dedicated to debt and equity strategies. Despite headwinds in 2023, Meier closed on 10 transactions at nearly $600 million in assets under management. She was instrumental in closing the firm’s first-ever OpCo investment, negotiating the sale of 10% of the business to Whitman Peterson. She also launched Cardinal’s development program and raised and deployed more than $100 million in recap equity with new equity partnerships for Cardinal. Meier launched Cardinal’s student housing development arm and raised $40 million in equity for The Cove, a new student housing community currently under construction in Santa Barbara, California. She is an active member in Cardinal’s Women-in-Leadership BRG and WISH - Women Investing in Student Housing. She is on the NMHC finance committee and is frequently featured on panels across the industry.
Madison Meier
Jaime Lee is the CEO of the Jamison group of companies, a privately held, family-run commercial real estate enterprise with a market capitalization of more than $3 billion that operates 13 million square feet of office, multifamily and retail properties throughout Southern California. Lee manages the firm’s portfolio of 100 buildings and led the push to rebrand the company and its properties by positioning them to capitalize on a burgeoning tech scene in and around downtown. Lee and her brothers also saw the growing need for housing in Los Angeles 10 years ago and converted one-third of the firm’s existing office buildings into residential properties, propelling the firm to one of the largest apartment owners in Los Angeles. She began her career in 2008 during the Global Financial Crisis, which taught Lee to be nimble in the face of constantly changing market conditions. She previously served the City of Los Angeles for four years as president of the Los Angeles City Employees’ Retirement System Board of Administration, which oversees the city’s $17 billion employee pension fund, and on the boards for the Industrial Development Authority and the Quality and Productivity Commission.
Jaime Lee
Mary Lang has played an important role in CBRE Investment Management’s Americas expansion within the modern logistics sector, leading more than $4.5 billion of transactions since joining CBRE IM in 2021. Under her leadership, the firm has acquired and developed 24 million square feet of infill logistics properties in some of the nation’s top markets, including the Southern California port market and the Inland Empire, as well as the New Jersey and New York shipping/ transportation corridors. Lang is head of the Americas direct logistics strategies for CBRE IM and is responsible for the portfolio construction, fund management, asset oversight and investment strategy for the firm’s Americas logistics platform. Last year, Lang acquired 364 acres of covered land in the Inland Empire that is earmarked for the first phase of Speedway Commerce Center, a planned, seven-building, 6.5-million-square-foot, state-of-the-art logistics development in Fontana, California. She also led the acquisition of the Port of LA Distribution Center, composed of four buildings totaling 1.82 million square feet. Lang’s influence is increasingly sought after on industry panels and she delivers an annual guest lecture series at the Columbia Business School.
Mary Lang
The Ackerberg Group president Jackie Knight takes action when she sees a need. She made a significant commitment to stabilizing the once-thriving urban neighborhood of Uptown in Minneapolis following a shooting that led to the perception that the area was unsafe. Knight created an ad-hoc group of property owners focused on security and began fundraising for a violence interruption program called We Push for Peace that patrols the area. At Ackerberg, Knight oversees all aspects of the company, including asset and property management, accounting, development, investor services, brokerage, fund management and company administration. She also serves as the firm’s broker of record and leads multiple investment funds, including Ackerberg’s third fund launched in 2022. Knight leads Ackerberg’s marketing, including the creation of the company’s formal ESG policy, along with materials needed for the launch of the next investment fund. She led the firm’s restructuring in 2023 and oversaw two acquisitions in Georgia and Wisconsin. She is a member of the Minnesota Sustainable Growth Coalition and is an elected member of the Uptown Special Service District Advisory Board, advising the Minneapolis City Council.
Jackie Knight
Katie Kimble started her career as a public accountant and spent the next two decades focusing on many aspects of alternative investing. In 2022, she joined Fundamental Income, a Phoenix-based net lease real estate company, as managing director of investments responsible for sourcing, originating and reviewing single-tenant acquisition and investment opportunities across the middle market. Kimble works in Chicago, giving the firm a Midwest presence. She built resilience during her career during the Great Financial Crisis when her entire office was eliminated, and again during COVID-19, when she moved to FI. In addition to leadership responsibilities on strategic initiatives, Kimble advances the firm’s goals within the business development and investment teams. She has led numerous marketing campaigns, client events and enhanced the firm’s presence in key target markets. Kimble also has served on industry boards and organizations, including the Midwest Business Brokers and Intermediaries, a curated network of industry leaders who serve as catalysts for the buying, funding and selling small and medium-sized businesses. She also is involved with the Association for Corporate Growth, an M&A deal-making community with a mission to drive middle-market growth.
Katie Kimble
Since joining CBRE Investment Management in 2021, Julie Ingersoll has led the Americas team’s growth in key sectors, including logistics and residential, as well as emerging growth real estate sectors that have shown resilience through recent market turbulence, such as life sciences, self-storage, student housing and other specialty residential assets. Such strategic portfolio positioning has led many of the strategies managed under Ingersoll’s watch to considerably outperform their benchmarks in 2023. Ingersoll is CIO for Americas direct real estate strategies for CBRE IM with overall responsibility for the investment strategy, portfolio management and analytics of almost $34 billion in assets under management. Under her guidance, the team has invested $4.2 billion in the residential, self-storage, logistics, retail and responsive office sectors in 2023. In addition to new transactions, firm resources were redeployed to focus on growing property level NOI in 2023, with the asset management team successfully leasing more than 5.7 million square feet of commercial space, including office, industrial, life sciences and medical office. The team was busy on the capital markets side as well, refinancing or modifying 16 loans totaling $2 billion. Ingersoll serves on the ULI UDMUC Silver Council and was recently named a board member of NAREIM.
Julie Ingersoll
Laura Hyde has been with Link Logistics since 2019, when she joined the firm through its integration with Talos Capital, where she had been working since 2017. Prior to that, Hyde was a senior financial analyst with Pritzker Realty Group, where she worked on more than $127 million of acquisitions and ground-up developments representing 2.1 million square feet. She also was an associate at Oak Street Real Estate Capital and a private equity analyst at Morgan Creek Capital Management. At Link Logistics, Hyde is managing director of investments overseeing acquisitions for the firm’s central region. Under Hyde’s oversight, the region completed $600 million of transaction volume, acquiring more than 20 buildings in Chicago, Dallas/Ft. Worth and El Paso. Hyde is a firm leader committed to empowering women at Link Logistics. She co-hosted the Link Women in Development and Investments offsite event, illustrating her passion for uplifting and supporting her female colleagues. She has served on the national planning committee for NAIOP’s CRE Converge Conference and is a highly engaged participant in NAIOP’s National Forums program. She is also a member of the ULI’s Women’s Leadership Initiative.
Laura M. Hyde
Jera Harris brings more than 34 years of experience across the Midwest and Southeast U.S. to her role as VP of asset management at Passco Cos. She oversees a portfolio of more than 3,000 multifamily units, plays a pivotal role in training team members and significantly contributes to the acquisition process, including budgeting and asset transitioning. Previously, as a regional property manager with Greystar, Harris managed 14 properties concurrently for Passco, ultimately paving her way to becoming an asset manager overseeing 12 properties simultaneously, including Passco’s most challenging asset. Whether facing natural disasters like hurricanes and floods, or adapting to rapidly changing market dynamics, she exhibits a calm demeanor and effective problem-solving skills. Notably, she played a pivotal role in the acquisition of two prominent properties in 2023. The acquisition of One Riverwalk, boasting a sale price of $124 million, was one of the highest in recent years in Knox County, and her involvement in the acquisition of Cortona at Forest Park, a multifamily community in a burgeoning neighborhood in St. Louis, demonstrates her proficiency in identifying lucrative opportunities in multifamily markets.
Jera Harris
Three years ago, Karen Fan founded Wildflower Communities, a privately held, vertically integrated real estate investment firm that focuses on acquiring, operating and developing manufactured housing communities. As the firm’s principal, she is responsible for investment strategy, due diligence and financing, implementation of capital improvement plans, fundraising and investor reporting, and day-to-day management of her communities. She has grown her portfolio to about 1,000 units through creative, long-term investments. Fan is determined to change mobile home park stereotypes by meeting with local city officials to discuss her communities, and she hired a brand designer to rebrand all of her assets to help elevate the community’s perception of them. Fan has created an entrepreneurial culture that invests in employees with paid time off, paid holidays, healthcare benefits, employee recognition programs, and training and development opportunities. She is passionate about helping local communities and was formerly elected chair of the Young Professionals Board at KickStart International and a young patron of several art museums including the MoMA, the Met and the Museum of Arts and Design. She is also a member of the Florida Manufactured Housing Association, ULI and NYU Schack Real Estate Alumni Council.
Karen Fan
A leader in the workforce housing arena, Interstate Equities Corp. co-president and COO Julia Boyd Corso has been instrumental in the family-owned business’ evolution into an institutional private equity firm that transforms California apartment communities on behalf of endowments, foundations and pension funds. She is responsible for corporate operations, asset management and the repositioning of all investments as well as setting the company’s strategic direction and investment strategies as a voting member of its investment committee. Boyd Corso joined the company in 2005 and has consistently been willing to roll up her sleeves to do what is needed to get the job done. She also has been central to IEC’s portfolio growth amid the pandemic and after. She targets smaller properties in infill locations that typically have been family-owned for several years and lack hands-on management and necessary improvements. Through Boyd Corso, IEC also targets larger-scale institutional-quality assets that require a more strategic renovation. In the past year, she played a seminal role in a series of multifamily real estate purchases IEC completed in November 2023 totaling roughly $68 million. She is a member of the ULI Multifamily Green Council and the Stanford Real Estate Council.
Julia Boyd Corso
Upon graduation from USC, Lisa Bhathal Merage joined family business RAJ Swim, where she started with an entry- level marketing role and worked up to co-CEO. In 2006, she launched LUXE by Lisa Vogel, a line of upscale swimwear sold at luxury retailers and then launched RAJ Capital, the alternative asset division of the Bhathal Family Office. It included an opportunity zone investment platform, RevOZ, which has invested more than $1.3 billion in opportunities designated for economic growth. This enterprise led to Revitate, a Newport Beach-based commercial real estate investment platform that partners with visionary business builders with the talent and drive to achieve transformational economic and social impact. As co-founder and chief impact officer of Revitate, Bhathal Merage champions social impact through property investment and the creation of a social council. Along with her family, Bhathal Merage is co-owner of Sacramento Basketball Holdings LLC, which owns the Sacramento Kings franchise of the National Basketball Association, Golden 1 Center, the Sawyer Hotel and residences, and is the developer of the Downtown Commons entertainment and sports district in Sacramento.
Lisa Bhathal Merage
Anusha Bera joined The RMR Group as a property manager more than 10 years ago and today is director of leasing at the firm due to her multidisciplinary skill set and open-door policy. In her role, Bera leverages negotiations, finance, management and marketing expertise to achieve the best outcome for the assets she represents. Colleagues describe Bera as honest, hard-working and reliable. She relocated from Chicago to Sacramento in 2021 and is responsible for RMR’s leasing activity across the West Coast, including more than 60 properties encompassing eight million square feet. She works closely with RMR’s asset management team to manage tenancy in her properties and collaborates with brokers to market, negotiate and resource opportunities for her office, medical and life science assets. Bera also partners with the portfolio management and senior leadership teams as well as ownership representatives to analyze deal structures that include joint venture partners. Her notable accomplishments include managing leasing initiatives for the HUB 1415 redevelopment in Naperville, Illinois, a 75-acre class A office campus with 721,936 square feet of interior space as well as walking paths and outdoor gathering areas, and completing a new lease deal for an 87,000-square-foot building on a seven-year term in Arizona.
Anshu Bera
Gina Baker Chambers was recently named president of MCB Real Estate, an owner, operator and developer in her hometown of Baltimore. Previously, she was a senior managing director at Artemis Real Estate Partners where she connected pension funds to investments that generated attractive risk-adjusted returns. During her 14-year tenure at the company, Baker Chambers helped the company grow from a startup to managing $10 billion in assets. She led a joint venture of MCB and Artemis with projects such as the stabilization of the Palmetto Logistics Center in the Atlanta area. She joined MCB as an executive on loan in June 2023 and later resigned from Artemis to assume the role of MCB president in December 2023. She is tasked with growing MCB’s momentum and connectivity to nationwide institutional partners. Her impact at MCB has been swift as she played a pivotal role in optimizing a joint venture involving MCB, Artemis, Invesco Real Estate, Curated Development Group and Birchwood Capital Partners, resulting in the largest lease in MCB’s history — a 1.2-million-square-foot lease with Webstaurant Store at the Currwood Logistics Center in Hagerstown, Maryland, a speculative development nearing completion. This project is anticipated to create at least 700 new jobs.
Gina Baker Chambers
