The Hottest Openings; Insightful Commentary

Perspective

With October here, the fall meeting season for real estate associations is gearing-up. Most executives and senior professionals have already begun to take part in these annual rituals, which gather the most serious and senior career professionals and executives to network, take the temperature of the market and get some perspective on the business. These meetings are the glue of our industry and are all about people. However, behind the scenes and in sidebar conversations around every conference, real deals of every type, shape and size are being made. It's not a protracted negotiation with due diligence and teams of analysts and associates. Rather, what takes place here is the pure essence of the deal--a handful of executives agreeing to pursue an opportunity together. To be sure, the cleanup will take weeks, but the deal has been solidified with a simple handshake and squeeze of an elbow. And then, they part, and the professionals push on, checking their Blackberries and preparing for the next encounter.

Tony LoPinto is CEO of Equinox Partners, an executive search firm specializing in the real estate industry, and parent company of SelectLeaders.The views expressed in this article are the author's own.

Job Opportunities

ARCHSTONE-SMITH
(CALIFORNIA) Development Analyst This position provides analytical support for the mixed-use development West team, whose primary development goal is to provide superior quality mixed-use projects emphasizing unique architectural design and efficient site planning coupled with signature urban atmospheres.

SCI REAL ESTATE INVESTMENTS
(CALIFORNIA) Regional Director The regional director will be responsible for developing high-level business relationships with licensed real estate professionals and their 1031 exchange clients within a defined market area.

JONES LANG LASALLE
(TEXAS) Retail Asset Manager We are currently seeking a retail asset manager to join our LaSalle Investment Management team located in Dallas or Chicago office. LaSalle Investment Management is a global real estate investment manager with more than $29 billion of public and private assets under management.

SELECTLEADERS
(NEW YORK) Associate Director - Investments Our client, the largest and most successful commercial real estate capital intermediary in the country, is seeking an associate director of investments to be located in their New York City offices. The ideal candidate will have strong writing and financial modeling skills to go along with superior management and leadership qualities.

PRUDENTIAL
(VIRGINIA) Investment Operations Associate This position chiefly entails coordinating all due diligence processing requirements for multifamily loans and maintaining internal checklists and databases. Candidate should have strong organizational skills, be self-motivated, work independently as well as in a group environment and have the ability to multi-task.

SELECTLEADERS
(FLORIDA) Portfolio Manager – Real Estate Capital One of the nation's largest real estate lenders, Key Bank Real Estate Capital, is seeking a portfolio manager to be located in its Miami office. The ideal candidate will possess a strong background in underwriting and real estate sales along with exceptional verbal and written communication skills.

WASHINGTON REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST
(MARYLAND)Financial Analyst The company is seeking a financial analyst to support the senior manager, finance and the CFO in the management of corporate finance and investor relations. Specific duties include updating and maintaining earnings model, as well as developing models and metrics to help illustrate results.

Promotions

JONES LANG LASALLE
(CHICAGO) Five executives take the title of managing director. They are Scott Miller, Strategic Consulting; Paul Petricca, Investor National Accounts; Jim Postweiler, Capital Markets; David Roberts, Project & Development Services; and Michael Thompson, Corporate Solutions.

CB RICHARD ELLIS
(HOUSTON) Aaron Howes, of the firm's Global Corporate Services Practice, is awarded the title of vice president. He joined CBRE in 1999.

MARCUS & MILLICHAP
(ENCINO, CA) The board of directors promotes four to senior investment associate. James H. Bell takes the title in the Houston office; Jeffrey P. Meyer and Darron Kattan take the title in the Tampa office; and Michael Dean takes the title in the Madison, WI office.

MARCUS & MILLICHAP
(NEW HAVEN, CT) Gary Witten rises to senior investment associate for the multifamily division after six years with the firm.

CB RICHARD ELLIS
(CHICAGO) Ted Staszak is promoted to senior vice president from first vice president. He started with the firm eight years ago in the financial consulting group and moved to investment sales in 2001.

JONES LANG LASALLE
(NEW YORK CITY) John Ryan III rises to managing director and Randy Abend becomes vice president. Ryan previously was an executive vice president and Abend was a leasing specialist focused on Mid-Manhattan properties.

JONES LANG LASALLE HOTELS
(NEW YORK CITY, MIAMI, CHICAGO) The company promotes three long-time executives to senior vice president: Jeffrey Davis in the New York City office; Miguel Rivera in Miami; and Kristina Paider in Chicago.

EQUIS CORP.
(CHICAGO) David Montross, the firm's COO for four years, is named chief executive as part of the post-acquisition transition from parent company, United Group Ltd.

New Hires

INTERCONTINENTAL HOTELS GROUP
(ATLANTA) Bill Linehan, who previously worked for the firm, rejoins as vice president of marketing and new business development. He was most recently vice president of marketing and strategic development for Starwood Hotel & Resorts Worldwide Inc. in White Plains.

BEHRINGER HARVARD
(DALLAS) Five executives take on roles in real estate, finance and securities at the firm. Joe Jernigan has been named vice president-acquisitions; James Gaspard has been named vice president-asset management; and Mark Alfieri has been named senior vice president-real estate. In addition, Andrew J. Bruce has been named vice president-finance and Michael Stricker has been named vice president-investment services.

ARCHON GROUP
(WALNUT CREEK, CA) Robert O'Gorman comes on board as director of retail investments for the company's retail division's west region. Immediately prior to joining Archon he served as senior director of retail development for Opus West Corp.

GRUBB & ELLIS
(NEW YORK) John McGinley joins the firm as vice president and director of management services for New York. McGinley worked at Jones Lang LaSalle as a vice president in the New York region. Prior to that, he worked at Tishman Speyer Properties.

TRAMMELL CROW CO.
(PHOENIX) Lou Finocchiaro moves to Trammell Crow's industrial group as a senior associate. He comes to the firm from CB Richard Ellis.

CAPITALSOURCE
(PORTLAND, ME) David Eaton joins the Chevy Chase, MD-based company as senior development officer in its new Portland office. Eaton has been a HUD lender and program consultant since 1983.

STREAM REALTY PARTNERS
(HOUSTON) Brad Fricks comes on board as vice president in the Houston office. Previously, Fricks was the vice president of leasing for Equity Office Properties.

CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD
(NEW YORK) Michael Berne takes the reins of the Senior Housing and Healthcare Group in the firm's Capital Markets Group. Prior to joining C&W, Berne was senior executive vice president of the Healthcare Services Group of Cohn Real Estate, LLC and was the national director of the Healthcare Advisory Group of Grubb & Ellis.

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Tony LoPinto is the Global Sector Leader of Korn Ferry’s Real Estate Practice and founder of SelectLeaders. For the past 18 years LoPinto has been serving his clients with deep knowledge and perspective on talent needs and organizational challenges to public and private companies – knowledge gained from a 25-year career in real estate. Prior to his current position, he founded and served as chief executive officer of a boutique real estate executive search firm, where he oversaw offices in New York, Chicago, Washington, DC, San Francisco and Los Angeles. He has successfully led several high profile search engagements for chief executive officers, directors and a wide-range of executive level positions across all industries and sectors. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in European history from Loyola University in Chicago.