Leading Voices In Real Estate

Bobby Turner, the Principal and CEO of Turner Impact Capital, and previously the leader of Canyon’s real estate investment platform, is a passionate force for good in the real estate industry.His career began as a money maker and pure wealth creator in the private equity world, particularly in real estate at Canyon. Gradually, he eased into impact investing through an early partnership with Magic Johnson. This led to a revelation that inspired him to focus exclusively on impact investing, the art of balancing impact and profits, and the creation of Turner Impact Capital.Since 2014, Turner Impact Capital has become one of the country’s largest social impact investment funds, with $3 billion of investment potential in three areas:Workforce housing where they have acquired 7800 units.Charter schools with his partner Andre Agassi, which has built 103 public charter schools.Healthcare facilities investments where they have developed or acquired 15 community healthcare centers.Bobby is a compelling, brilliant man w

Gene Golub is the Founder and Chairman of Golub and Company, a family-owned, international real estate developer and owner based in Chicago.Now in his eighties, Gene discusses the discipline and passion it took to build this commercial real estate business from the ground up in the ‘60s, and how his family values and culture have shaped its impressive trajectory. Gene highlights the projects and partnerships that influenced the company’s growth, from its early beginnings in his hometown of Chicago to Eastern Europe and beyond.Today, Gene guides the company directionally but has passed the baton onto the second and third generations of family members. The family’s strong trust in one generation to the next is a defining factor in the rich Golub and Company legacy.

In this episode of Leading Voices in Real Estate, host Matt Slepin engages in a sort of joint interview with Chris Rising, CEO of Rising Realty Partners, an LA-based vertically integrated real estate firm, and host of The Real Market Podcast. Chris and Matt talk about the lessons they’ve learned while hosting their podcasts and their experiences interviewing leaders in commercial real estate. They also swap questions with each other about their business journeys. While Matt talks about his work in executive search at Terra Search Partners, Chris discusses his family built company, Rising Realty Partners, which he co-founded with his father—real estate legend, and past client of Matt’s—Nelson Rising. Rising Realty Partners is largely an office property company, and is deeply focused on bringing technology, sustainability, and diversity into the real estate industry.Learn more about Chris Rising and Rising Realty Partners:Rising Realty PartnersThe Real Market Podcast

Today’s interview is with Bill Bayless who is the co-founder and CEO of the only publicly traded student housing company, American Campus Communities (ACC). Bill co-founded the company in 1993, literally just down the hall from Michael Dell who founded Dell Computers—that’s right, two of Austin’s biggest companies founded just a few dorm rooms apart from each other.This company is one of the true pioneers in the student housing business. ACC’s initial mission revolves around a deep and long term commitment to excellence and service—be it to employees, customers, investors—focusing on more than just a transactional goal.To learn more about Bill and American Campus Communities visit:https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-bayless-1235b62a/https://www.americancampus.com/Also mentioned in this episode:Keith Oden – Creating the Ultimate Company Culture (podcast)

Today’s interview is with Ed Walter, who was named Global CEO for the Urban Land Institute (ULI) in June of 2018. Ed has had a 35-year career in the industry prior to joining ULI, the headline of which was his 20 years at Host Hotels & Resorts, formerly known as Host Marriott, of which the last 9 years he spent as its CEO. Now as the leader of ULI, Ed discusses the changes and challenges that the organization faces, as well as its mission in representing the voice of thoughtful development out in the world. The real estate industry is all about helping create sustainable and vibrant cities and places to live, work, and play. ULI plays a crucial role in articulating and promoting that message and aspiration.Find out more about Ed Walter:Renowned Real Estate Industry Leader W. Edward Walter Is ULI’s New Global CEOQ+A with ULI’s New Global CEO, Ed Walter

In this episode of Leading Voices in Real Estate, Matt Slepin interviews Gilda Perez-Alvarado. Gilda was recently, in September 2018, named the CEO for JLL’s Hotels and Hospitality Group, Americas. In the interview, Gilda shares her career story — from growing up in Costa Rica, to hotel school at Cornell, then working across the globe on hotel transactions, and now her leadership in the business. She shares her wisdom both about the ever-changing hotel business and its ever-deepening engagement with its guests as well as the global nature and appeal of investing in the sector.This is the first part of back-to-back episodes on the hospitality business. Our conversation with Gilda will be followed up with a conversation with Ed Walter, formerly head of Host Hotels and Resorts, and now the Global CEO of the Urban Land Institute.Find out more about Gilda Perez-Alvarado:Gilda on LinkedInGilda & JLLGilda & Cornell

Cedric Bobo is the Co-Founder of Project Destined, a 501c3 that educates both inner city kids and military veterans in financial literacy and community development by their investing, shark tank style, in real real estate deals in their communities. Project Destined brings in the kids and the vets alongside major real estate investment firms like Brookfield in the Bronx and Cortland Partners in Atlanta, with sponsorship and participation from the NBA and celebs like A-Rod, J Lo, and Mariano Rivera. The mission of Project Destined is to transform minority youth into owners and stakeholders in the communities in which they live, work and play. Cedric tells his career story — from growing up in Memphis, to Harvard Business School, to investment banking and private equity at DLJ and The Carlyle Group, to founding Project Destined.

In this special edition showcasing a panel discussion from the 2019 National Multifamily Housing Council Meeting, we explore the centerpiece topic of recruiting and managing talent in today’s industry with four leaders in the apartment business: Bill Bayless, CEO of American Campus Communities; Chris Payne, President of SARES-REGIS Group; Cindy Scharringhausen, Senior Vice President of Human Resources at Camden Property Trust; and Julie Smith, Chief Administrative Officer at The Bozzuto Group. They are generous in sharing their honest challenges, valuable wisdom, innovative strategies, and time-tested tactics for success.Related LinksArticle on NMHC.org

You might say that innovation, passion, and real estate are in Lucy Billingsley’s blood. As the only daughter of real estate legend Trammell Crow, Lucy wanted to make her own name for herself and co-founded the Billingsley Company with her husband. The firm has been developing and creating spaces full of dynamic energy in the Dallas area for years.

In today’s round table discussion, Co-head of JLL’s Multifamily Capital Market’s platform, Christine Espenshade; CEO of Holland Partner Group, Clyde Holland; and Executive Director of Up for Growth National Coalition, Mike Kingsella explore the future of the Multifamily Housing Market and the policies shaping its trajectory.The FutureWhile Clyde, Christine, and Mike agree that the outlook is positive and the economy is picking up, the supply is already a problem for the increasing demand in the market.Clyde advises developers and builders to get start building now to get ahead of the projected buying challenges, with the knowledge that it may be slow in the beginning but will pay off as demand increases.Christine emphasizes that institutional investors are already interested and willing to support these long-term projects because they know that the investment promises steady, safe returns. The shift from home ownership to long-term apartment occupancy is also a clear marker that multifamily housing is a cruci

Bill Stein, CEO of Digital Realty, one of the largest data center real estate companies in the world, entered the data center space just as the cloud was born.“We are fortunately right at the middle of all of this, we are at the heart of this revolution.”Pennsylvania and PrincetonBill grew up in Pittsburgh, PA, where relationships, friendship, family, and sports (specifically football) mattered above all else. He attended boarding school in Philadelphia, Princeton for his B.A. in the classics, and the University of Pittsburgh for law school.After working for his father’s law firm as an insurance defense litigator, he joined Duquesne Light Company as a lawyer and then Assistant Treasurer, and then Westinghouse Credit and Westinghouse Electric where he tackled deals before and during the S&L crisis.In 1994, Bill moved to San Francisco to work with one of his previous clients at Westinghouse, TriNet Corporate Realty Trust which was soon sold to iStar Financial Inc. He went on to serve as co-head of Venture B

Daryl Carter is the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Avanath Capital Management, LLC, a real estate investment firm that acquires, renovates, and operates affordable and workforce housing communities across the US. His dual focus on both investment returns and improving the communities where he invests is rare in this business, and we hear on this episode what drives Daryl to succeed in this balancing act.

John Stewart is the Founder and Chair of the John Stewart Company, a San Francisco-based owner, developer, and manager of affordable and mixed-income housing, founded in 1978 with three employees.Today, the Company has 1,400 employees in five offices in the state of California, managing 31,000 units with over 2000 units in its development pipeline.From Aerospace to Affordable HousingJohn grew up in California, graduating from Stanford in 1956 with a liberal arts degree and a focus on history and finance. When he was recruited by U.S. Steel, he moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles but found that the large corporate culture wasn’t a good fit for his entrepreneurial mindset. He switched to TRW as a young management trainee and moved in 1964 to Houston to join TRW’s new offices at the Johnson Space Center.“In careers, once in a while there’s sort of a choice point… we saw the astronauts and NASA up close and personal, but I was also interested in finding out about life in a Southern city.”John showed up as an

Sam Zell, one of the most storied names in real estate, describes his riveting journey from his parents’ escape from Poland in 1939 as Hitler invaded to how he built his real estate empire at Equity International, created the modern REIT, and lead the industry public.More about Equity Group InvestmentsForbes Magazine on Sam Zell’s successAm I Being Too Subtle?: Straight Talk From a Business Rebel

Colin Wiel is Co-Founder Chairman, and CTO of Mynd, a full stack, tech-enabled, property management company focused on small residential (single family rentals plus small multi-family buildings).AI and JavaColin grew up in Washington D.C., went to high school in Reno, Nevada, and went to UC Berkeley where he got his BA in mechanical engineering. Straight out of college, he landed a dream job at Boeing, where he wrote algorithms for automatic control systems and developed groundbreaking new software.He had a strong entrepreneurial spirit and soon struck out on his own as an independent software consultant working with giants like Hewlett Packard, Oracle, and Netscape, where he became one of the very first Java programmers in the world.He began developing and teaching the Java curriculum for UC Berkeley and while continuing his consulting with a new focus on Java. Eventually, his consulting grew into a full-fledged firm and he brought on many students he had taught. One of their big projects was transitioning C

Art GenslerWhen Art Gensler started his firm in 1965, Gensler solely did interiors. Today, it is not just an interior or a design firm; rather, Gensler thinks of itself as a full-scale, client-focused design firm with a team of 6,000 in 48 offices around the world.He remembers knowing he wanted to be an architect from since he was 5 years old, and credits his ability to visualize things and communicate that vision well to his skill as a planner.After working in the service, he went on to work for a Shreve, Lamb and Harmon in NYC, spent time in the British West Indies, and created the entire architectural standards guide for Wurster, Bernardi & Emmons. At 30, he struck out on his own.EvolvingArt says that when he founded Gensler, it started slowly by focusing on producing high-quality work. The recognition Gensler received for these early projects led him into the consulting field, and soon Gensler was being tapped by Pennzoil to do more than just interior design. Now, their workload is about 50% architect

Liz Holland is now CEO of her grandfather’s over 77-year-old real estate business, Abbell Associates. She never imagined she would end up there, but she says it was amazing creating a relationship with her grandfather and becoming his colleague for two years before he passed away and continuing his legacy.“It’s such a challenging time in retail real estate because things are transforming so quickly and certainly there have been big retail disruptors in the past and there will be bigger retail disruptors in the future, so it’s been quite exciting for us both in our real estate business and our software business to anticipate those disruptors and ride the wave.”Early CareerHer early career in bond trading, law school, her time at Sekadden Arps, and then working in government for a congressional commission gave her a thick skin and taught her how to take risks. She also was quick to learn that she had a strong desire to be an expert in whatever field she was in and make sure that what she was learning today woul

Lisa Picard is a woman with a vision. Thanks to technology, the office development space has evolved from a B2B market to B2C, and she’s on the front lines of in an industry resistant to change.“We’re really not producing products per say; we’re creating ideas. And so, … organizations’ access to ideas is really through collaboration, connection, of having really high-quality talent.”CuriosityLisa grew up in Southeast L.A. County with her twin sister and Depression-era parents who taught her to cherish and respect her resources. This instilled in her a fascination for her urban environment, and she went on to study Urban Planning at California State Polytechnic University.After graduation, she worked closely with the City of L.A., and she saw how developers had a different view book than she did. She wanted in and applied to MIT to dive deeper into development, planning, urban economics, and finance.Just before heading to MIT, at the age of 22 her father suddenly died and her mother the summer after, and Lisa

Jon Geanakos grew up in Ipswich, Massachusetts, raised mainly by his Greek immigrant grandparents. They gave him a strong sense of ethnicity and hard work, speaking Greek predominantly in their home and running a local grocery store and ice cream parlor. He was recruited to play lacrosse at the University of Lowell and it was there that he found himself embracing leadership. As the captain of his lacrosse team, he excelled at helping the right people work together to achieve their goal.His lacrosse coach introduced him to the president of the local bank, Lowell Institution, and that set him on the trajectory to real estate.   “It’s fascinating how one person just at that pivot point in a young person’s life can guide you to what your life’s work is. You never understand the profoundness at the time when it happens, you obviously realize it when the years have passed.”Jon’s Leadership JourneyAfter a few years at the bank, he was approached by some of the bank’s investors to join them in starting The Tallard Gr

Ron Terwilliger’s outstanding career and legacy didn’t end when he retired from Trammell Crow, it only grew.Coming from a low-income family with little expectations of wealth, he wanted to give back and affordable housing seemed to be the most natural place for his philanthropic interest to bloom.   “As I started to get wealthy in my late forties and fifties, I began thinking: what should I do with my time and wealth?”From his $100 million legacy gift to Habitat for Humanity, chairing Habitat’s international Board and the Enterprise Community Partners board to name a few, Ron gives generously of his money, time, and expertise.Public PolicyWhile he is very active in the private sector, his role in the public sector has made a serious impact. After being invited to give a lecture at Harvard on Housing Policy in America, he became inspired by the great Shortage of affordable housing in this country. He characterized this shortage as a housing crisis formed a foundation and started meeting with senators and congr