When Real Estate Forum introduced its Women of Influence feature 20 years ago, it created a buzz. After all, it represented the first time any commercial real estate publication had focused solely on women's achievements in the business.

The January 1993 issue featured 104 notable women in the industry. At the time, some readers quipped that the editors gathered up every woman in CRE.

Not quite—but not a stretch, either.

Since then, many things have changed. For one, women make up a larger proportion of the business. There are more women in senior-level roles today than ever before, and the new crop of employees coming into sector is increasingly more diverse in both gender and ethnicity.

This year, Forum received nearly 400 nominees for the annual Women of Influence roundup. Combined with our own shortlists, about 500 women were considered altogether. In the end, about 115 women of distinction are featured on the pages of this magazine, from a variety of fields, regions and experience levels. Each individual was chosen based on her achievements in, contribution to and reputation in the business.

This being the 20th anniversary, we decided to present this year's Women of Influence in a unique manner. In addition to our standard listing of successful women, we also featured a list of those we consider to be “Legends” in the industry. That is, those professionals who have become icons in the business, with no firm affiliation necessary. We also feature 20 “Women to Watch,” young professionals who are on track to assume leadership positions in the future.

Finally, to get a better sense of exactly who some of these Women of Influence are, we decided to profile a number of them in a special section we called “Parallels.” The initial thought behind it was to ask some industry legends to select a woman they admire to appear together in a profile. Many of the icons we spoke with chose to appear with their protégés or mentees, others chose a colleague within the industry and one legend chose her own mentor.

Regardless of experience level, all the women who appear in the Parallels feature are truly Women of Influence.

Here are the featured interviews for Parallels. The links below will direct you to the full interviews; for the shorter versions that appeared in Forum, click here.

THE LEADERS
THE LEGEND: Merle Gross Ginsberg, Founder, Association of Real Estate Women
THE WOMAN OF INFLUENCE: Frances Delgorio, Managing Director, Leasing, Jack Resnick & Sons
THE WOMAN TO WATCH: MacKenzie Landers, Director, Asset Management and Development, HFZ Capital Group

THE COLLABORATORS
THE LEGEND:MaryAnne Gilmartin, President and CEO, Forest City Ratner Cos.
THE WOMAN TO WATCH: Melissa Roman Burch, EVP, Commercial and Residential Development, Forest City Ratner Cos.

THE ACHIEVERS
THE LEGEND: Debra Cafaro, Chairman & CEO, Ventas Inc.
THE LEGEND:Sheli Z. Rosenberg, Of Counsel, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

THE NAVIGATORS
THE LEGEND: Annemarie DiCola, Chief Executive Officer, Trepp Inc.
THE WOMAN OF INFLUENCE: Shari Linnick, Vice President, Client Services, Trepp Inc.

THE SUPPORT TEAM
THE LEGEND: Colette English-Dixon, Principal and Co-Leader, National Dispositions Program, Prudential Real Estate Investors
THE WOMAN OF INFLUENCE: Soultana Reigle, Managing Director, Prudential Real Estate Investors

THE IRON LADIES
THE LEGEND: Faith Hope Consolo, Chairman, Douglas Elliman's Retail Group
THE WOMAN OF INFLUENCE: Karen Dome, Senior Associate, Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services

THE RISK TAKERS
THE LEGEND: Brooke Denihan Barrett, Co-CEO, Denihan Hospitality
THE WOMAN OF INFLUENCE: Ellen Brown, EVP, Acquisitions and Development, Denihan Hospitality

THE CROSS-OVERS
THE LEGEND: Kim Burke, Managing Director, Public Institutions, Jones Lang LaSalle
THE WOMAN OF INFLUENCE: Janet L. Rice, SVP, Public Institutions, Jones Lang LaSalle
THE WOMAN TO WATCH: Marnie Glassman Gale, SVP, Public Institutions, Jones Lang LaSalle

PLUS

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Sule Aygoren

Aygoren oversees the editorial direction and content for ALM’s Real Estate Media Group, including Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com. In her tenure with ALM, she’s held roles of increasing responsibility, including Managing Editor. Aygoren has received several awards for her coverage including Best Trade Magazine Report from the National Association of Real Estate Editors and the James D. Carper Award for Young Journalists. Under her direction, Forum has received four national NAREE awards for Best Commercial Real Estate Trade Magazine.

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