June 17, 2008

As CREW Chicago celebrates its 20th anniversary, we had the rare opportunity to engage our chapter’s founders and past presidents to share their insights on how the past is a bridge to the future. On June 17th, Roosevelt University’s Marshall Bennett School of Real Estate hosted an evening of our leadership series in the historic Gage Building. MB Real Estate graciously sponsored the event.

Panelists were Marilyn Lissner, Executive Vice President, Cushman & Wakefield; Ann Morrow, Senior Vice President, Concordis Frontier Commercial LLC; and Gail Sturm, Executive Vice President, ProTen Realty Group. Joanna Haerle led the panel in an interesting and lively open dialogue about how the leadership lessons of the past are instructive for career success. As these formidable women reflected on their and CREW Chicago’s beginnings, members were reminded how far women in real estate have come and how much work we still have to do to achieve parity in the commercial real estate industry. The importance of mentorship, both as mentors and mentees, was stressed; the continuous challenge of work/life balance and the myth of its existence were discussed; and skills and attributes for success were shared. One common theme was that each of us needs to find her own path, move forward without fear and make decisions that do not compromise her as a person.

As we look to the future, everyone agreed that the challenges will be greater and new skill sets will be needed in a more global business environment where technology enables information to flow at the speed of light and decisions are anticipated to happen as quickly.

We are grateful to these women not only for sharing their time and stories, but also for helping shape the professional advancement of women in the real estate industry.