WoI Speaker: "I'm a Deal Junkie"
“Align yourself with like-minded people who can enhance and elevate you," says Berkadia’s Hilary Provinse.
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Washington, DC—Joining Berkadia in 2018, Hilary Provinse serves as the executive vice president and head of Mortgage Banking and is an active member of Berkadia’s Management Committee. She is also a speaker at our inaugural Women of Influence event being held next month. GlobeSt.com sat down with Provinse to learn more about her background and her experiences in the industry.
Provinse oversees a team of 140 experienced mortgage bankers located in 31 offices across the country. Her favorite part of the job: the deal.
“My dad was actually in the commercial real estate industry and so throughout my childhood, I listened to industry conversations around the dinner table,” says Provinse. “I love the deal side of CRE, I’m a deal junkie. Behind all the transactions are real people with real stories and I enjoy listening and cultivating the relationship side of the business.”
Provinse’s role, of course, has become more focused on management than the deal but she still takes the opportunity to build relationships, both internally and externally.
Prior to Berkadia, Provinse was senior vice president and head of Customer Engagement at Fannie Mae, where she was responsible for managing all of Fannie Mae’s multifamily production activities and customer relationships.
For Provinse, some of the keys to success as a female executive includes the following:
- always delivering the work as agreed,
- excellent work ethics,
- become the “go-to” employee.
“I try to align myself with my bosses and mentors. Male or female, I found people who would uplift me in my career. They gave me promotions and opportunities and I basically figured out what work they needed to be done and delivered,” explains Provinse.
As CRE was primarily a male-dominated field, Provinse experienced some challenges such as feeling excluded from some networking and social events and feeling somewhat isolated. However, “I just powered through and got used to it. The takeaway is that you simply align yourself with like-minded people who can enhance and elevate you,” says Provinse.
As commercial real estate continues to evolve, there are several aspects of the industry that intrigues Provinse.
“Interpersonal dynamics and optimizing people in the right roles in this ever-changing industry is a satisfying feeling,” says Provinse. “I am also totally intrigued with all of the technology innovations. There’s so much more to come in our industry.”