| Tell us a little about your story. How did you come to C&W? What do you do? |
| I came to C&W as my first job out of college. I joined our Corporate Commission Accounting group in December of 2004 after graduating from Dickinson College with a degree in International Business and Management. |
| Why do YOU work here at Cushman & Wakefield and not somewhere else? |
| I continue to work at C&W because I enjoy the people. |
| With the world constantly changing, how has your job, or client’s job changed over the past 10 years? |
| Increased regulation by the Federal Reserve, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) have increased the need for valuations. Also, technological advances have allowed us to manage larger amounts of data and deliver valuations in a more efficient and timely manner. |
| C&W has one of the most interesting growth stories in our industry. How has our recent momentum made an impact on your role or created opportunities for you? |
| We have strong leadership with a clear vision, which includes establishing and growing new service lines within the Valuation & Advisory practice. I have the privilege of co-leading one of those service lines and the ability to help shape and define it. |
| With the breadth of services we have now, how are you able to do more today for your clients? |
| Many of our valuation clients have traditionally been underserved. Our V&A practice has added the necessary resources, such as property tax services, cost segregation, and machinery & equipment valuation, that allow us to now assist on multidisciplinary assignments. |
| With the breadth of services we have now, how are you able to do more today for your clients? |
| My role is to work with account management in improving client experience, developing new tools and generating ideas to improve productivity. All our clients benefit from any improvements or innovations we bring to our account management and service line platforms. |
| What solution, achievement or moment are you most proud of while either working at Cushman & Wakefield, or in your personal life? |
| I came to this country as an immigrant for graduate study (before the advent of social media). I had no family, no friends, and no networks. I feel proud that any success I have been able to achieve has been my way: I’ve had meaningful positions at two major global companies that are top in their industries, and have maintained a healthy work-life balance to raise a family. It’s been quite a journey! |
| Why do YOU work here at Cushman & Wakefield and not somewhere else? |
| I like it here and I like the culture. I met some great C&W people (Larry Richey, Dawn McReynolds, and Alan Bascom) while in grad school that were very giving of their time and knowledge, among other things; Dawn offered to let my son and I stay with her until we found a place to live in the new city. Larry, Dawn and Alan were willing to help get me in the door at C&W to start my corporate real estate career, and provided me with the support that I needed while I was here. Additionally, when I made the decision to return to C&W, I reached out to a former neighbor and friend who ALSO worked for C&W, LaShawn Bates. LaShawn shared with me the growth path that the company was on, and I was very excited about becoming a part of that. With my current group that I work with in Steve Quick’s organization, I’m able to pull in my prior experiences and education, and contribute toward this incredible Global Occupier Services organic growth initiative. |
| With the breadth of services we have now, how are you able to do more today for your clients? |
| I’m currently in a unique role within a fairly new group, Strategic Client Development. Our group is set up to truly leverage C&W’s breadth of services, and partner with identified clients where we are able to engage with the client and understand their enterprise-level business issues. We can then provide additional value by way of bringing in some of our other service offerings to help resolve those clients’ issues, and align beyond a business unit level to a more integrated level. |
| C&W has one of the most interesting growth stories in our industry. How has our recent momentum made an impact on your role or created opportunities for you? |
| I arrived in the U.S. the day before the deal was announced, so there was a large degree of uncertainty as to whether I would be retained or not. Fortunately, it worked out well, and the new combined entity has provided and continues to provide many interesting professional challenges as we work towards consolidation. |
| With the breadth of services we have now, how are you able to do more today for your clients? |
| My clients are more internal than external, and as we work towards consolidation, my role is to rationalize the number of banking partners and centralize liquidity, automating as much of the transaction processing as possible to free up local finance teams. We are also implementing a Treasury Management System (TMS) to assist in this process. |
| Tell us a little about your story. How did you come to C&W? What do you do? |
| As my previous role of 6 years was evolving and would entail considerable travel, I knew it was time to begin a new search (with many mixed emotions). My last job was my “home,” and my next landing would have to feel the same. I applied at C&W, and was looking for a place where I could make an impact, mesh with the culture and work with peers and employees that kept true to the core values of a firm. I made an instant connection with the HR team that I would join, as well as the NJ Market Leader whom I would support. I knew it was a time of great change for the organization, and I am one who likes a challenge.
That combination for me at C&W sealed the deal. I worked on many integration projects, as well as understanding the dynamics of the brokers and service lines that I would support. During that time, the Market Leader and I were looking to replace the role of Director of Operations. After many interviews, we took a break to regroup, as we were not finding what we were looking for. It wasn’t until senior management in Tri-State changed and offered a new view point of the role — which was to find a trusted adviser, one who can step into the role, assess the needs of the region, quickly earn the trust of the population and be his “right hand (wo)man” — that the Market Leader realized that I would be a great fit. With that, we digested the possibility, and I accepted the role with much excitement! |
| What solution, achievement or moment are you most proud of while either working at Cushman & Wakefield, or in your personal life? |
| I am proud to be a working mother of 3 small children who can balance the day-to-day operations of a $80M region while still being present for her children. This is something I believe is a testament to women, and teaches so many good lessons to my children. |
| Tell us a little about your story. How did you come to C&W? What do you do? |
| In 1986, I decided to make a career change and joined the then Turley Martin Company as a Property Manager. After seven years in that role (and becoming the 2nd Account Executive), the opportunity arose to develop the services (for our still great customer, Edward Jones) what has become the Portfolio Services Center (PSC). Today, the PSC services over 75 customers (and continues to grow), providing great careers to some 450 wonderful CRE professionals, doing every type of CRE throughout the USA and Canada. |
| Why do YOU work here at Cushman & Wakefield and not somewhere else? |
| I began here, love the customers and people we get to work with, and plan to retire here. Having customers as friends and great associates to work with has made this a life, not just a living. |
| What solution, achievement or moment are you most proud of while either working at Cushman & Wakefield, or in your personal life? |
| Professionally, I’m most proud of helping build the Portfolio Services Center. On a personal note, being married to the same wonderful woman, Cindy, for 36+ years, my two great sons and now two beautiful grandchildren. |
| With the world constantly changing, how has your job, or client’s job changed over the past 10 years? |
| Over the past ten years, client needs have evolved to a point where the use of interrelated intelligence derived from both people and technology has become vital to delivering value across all real estate service disciplines. There truly has been a shift in the perception of how CRE and CRE partners can be a tool that is used in the delivery of a comprehensive experience within the workplace that renders efficiencies in productivity. |
| C&W has one of the most interesting growth stories in our industry. How has our recent momentum made an impact on your role or created opportunities for you? |
| Over the past couple of years, C&W has indeed created inspirational momentum within our industry. That momentum has sparked a need for greater stewardship, and thought leadership as we solution complicated challenges on behalf of our expanding client base. It is that growth driven need that gave me the opportunity to relocate for the 3rd time in the last seven years to the Tri-State region and into my role as the service line lead for our GOS IFM business. I consider myself very fortunate to have been in a position to move into a role that will contribute to shaping the future of our GOS business in the world’s largest market for the iconic Cushman & Wakefield organization. |
| With the world constantly changing, how has your job, or client’s job changed over the past 10 years? |
| Globalization has completely transformed our industry through the growth in emerging markets, specifically the BRICs economies, and the international and diverse flow of both talent and capital. Much of this being enabled through advances in technology.
Emerging markets have fueled global growth and changes in the way our clients do business. The firm provided me with the opportunity to live in two of these markets, China and Vietnam, and work with clients in over a dozen other emerging markets globally. Through these experiences, I’ve seen talent become infinitely more diverse and mobile. While I led the Singapore business, we totaled 13 different nationalities with over 70% women. Capital has followed a very similar path, both for our occupier and investor clients, across markets and asset classes. Working with these global clients has developed my understanding of how they analyze opportunities and the importance of managing risk. Lastly, technology has enabled this globalization through greater connectivity and productivity gains, but we are only in the first innings. The real disruption will come in the next 10 years through big data, artificial intelligence, machine learning and robotics, and it’s great to be in New York, a global hub for PropTech. We are much more interconnected and interdependent than ever before, but regardless of all these changes, there is one constant. We’re a long-term relationship business, it’s all about the people. |
| C&W has one of the most interesting growth stories in our industry. How has our recent momentum made an impact on your role or created opportunities for you? |
| Over the past 10 years, C&W’s growth gave me the opportunity to open our business in Vietnam from scratch, turn around and build our business in Singapore, develop a new service line across Asia Pacific for Agency Leasing, and relocate to New York, the world’s most exciting city for real estate at the center of PropTech. The firm’s growth has not only spurred my professional achievements, but also my personal experiences living around the world. |
| What solution, achievement or moment are you most proud of while either working at Cushman & Wakefield, or in your personal life? |
| I’m incredibly proud of the teams and businesses we built across Asia Pacific, and the landmark deals and projects we completed for clients globally. I’m now delighted to be part of our team here in the U.S., and excited about the next chapter! |
| With the world constantly changing, how has your job, or client’s job changed over the past 10 years? |
| As a researcher, I get to witness and explore trends across all different industry types. For example, e-commerce has revolutionized both the retail and the warehousing worlds of commercial real estate, and I love helping our brokers reinvent ways to help their clients meet their changing needs. Advances in technology over the past 10 years have also made information-gathering easier for clients, so I think our jobs have evolved into being true advisors for our clients, not just space-finders. |
| Why do YOU work here at Cushman & Wakefield and not somewhere else? |
| I work at Cushman & Wakefield and not somewhere else because honestly, I just want to be among the best. As far as research is concerned, we are one of the only firms in the industry with our own proprietary database and our own statistics, and I think this propels us far ahead of our competition. Across the firm, we have teams that specialize in everything, and as a result, not many other companies come close to the breadth of our capabilities. Frankly, I have trouble imagining working for a company whose output didn’t always make me this proud to be affiliated. |
| What solution, achievement or moment are you most proud of while either working at Cushman & Wakefield, or in your personal life? |
| One of the things I am most proud of is our New Jersey office’s commitment to our community, and the eagerness with which my colleagues picked up and ran with one of my long-time passions. Since I started at C&W in 2011, we have contributed to the building of six homes with Habitat For Humanity, and I’m still impressed by the way this group of corporate real estate professionals leapt at the opportunity to help build affordable housing–the other end of our industry’s spectrum. Business relationships are critical, but I’m proud of the enthusiastic way the people at C&W also give back to our community. |