There are many factors that have brought us to where we are today," says Christopher Cole. "But the key element is our people. Highly professional, dynamic, growing, vibrant, innovative, collaborative and team-focused are all words I use to describe the culture we've created here at Cole.

With the intent of making recommendations "to help guide an already-disciplined investment process," Indraneel Karlekar heads up Cole's investment strategy group. Joining Cole in May 2011 from ING Clarion Real Estate Securities, Karlekar says the team is "at the heart of the investment decision-making process. Everything starts with the strategy, and once an acquisition has been made, it is monitored and constantly appraised, also by the investment strategy team. So it's a full circle, starting and ending with the same team.

After stepping back from his role at Colliers International's New York Tri-State Region for several years due to personal matters, Michael Cohen is back at the helm. Effective January 1, 2012, Cohen officially resumed his role as president of the office. Real Estate Forum's Carl Gaines caught up with Cohen recently to find out where he hopes to take the firm in the future. Baseball metaphors abounded.

The January column titled, "A Broker/Corporate Services Clash" listed Paul Waters of NAI Global as lead author, with his colleague Gus Poulopoulos contributing to the column. Waters and Poulopoulos shared equally in preparing the column.

The nation's capital is still the place to be for investors looking for stability. That was the overall theme of an Investor Roundtable that took place immediately before Transwestern/ Delta Associates' 15th Annual Washington, DC Trendlines event in February. The roundtable, moderated by Real Estate Forum editor-in-chief Sule Aygoren Carranza and Transwestern SVP David Popp, brought together senior decision makers from some of the region's top investment and development firms.

ILENE ALLEN

Things are certainly improving for Southern California's industrial market, but the pace of the recovery remains undecided. A handful of local experts share their thoughts on the market this year.

In Paris, AXA Real Estate Investment Managers has appointed Deborah Shire as global head of business development. It's a new position, which carries overall responsibility for corporate finance, investor relations, marketing and communications and business development. Previously, Shire was deputy head of structured finance at AXA, where she was in charge of strategy, finance, marketing, operations and product development..