A change in both industry (from medical devices to CRE) and climate (from Chicago to Dallas) was the catalyst for a career path that, for Hogan, has meant completing more than 22 million square feet in transactions since 1984 and becoming a principal with Transwestern. Three downturns later, she is recognized as a leader in Dallas/Fort Worth and nationally, and although her specialty is transactions and consulting for corporate clients, she has also helped many smaller tenants that other brokers would pass by. In fact, she weathered one market slump in the 1980s by completing 60 deals of no more than 2,000 square feet each. Among her goals is to help Transwestern hire the best brokers available and to help individual brokers elevate their practice. She has long been involved with mentoring young women, some of whom are now successful in their own right, and plans to continue doing so.

Elysia Ragusa, Jones Lang LaSalle, Austin

In a long list of leaders with whom he's worked—including Jim Didion, Michael Colacino and Roger Staubach—plus a roster of 25 leaders of various client firms, Elysia Ragusa is “in the top three or four,” says Kenneth Sandstad, senior managing director of the Sandstad Group. She is “dynamic, smart, driven, tough, inquisitive and very persuasive,” he says. She learned the industry at Staubach's side, serving as his first lieutenant at the Staubach Co. as it grew dramatically from 2001 to 2007, eventually merging with Jones Lang LaSalle. Today, as a senior managing director, Ragusa runs JLL's Austin, TX office. The recipient of two masters degrees, Ragusa is simply “one of the most outstanding professionals in the business.”

This is an HTML version of an article that ran in the July/August 2013 issue of Real Estate Forum. To see the original story, click here.