Leading Voices in Real Estate

Gilda Perez-Alvarado, Chief Strategy Officer of Accor Hotels and President of Accor’s Orient Express luxury brand, returns as a guest on Leading Voices to talk about the hospitality business generally and starting up a luxury hotel and leisure brand. We first spoke in 2019 when she was CEO of JLL's Hotels and Hospitality Group.

Jeff DeBoer, Founding President and CEO of The Real Estate Roundtable, provides an insider’s view of what to expect for the real estate industry going into the new Trump Administration. Jeff and I sat down in his office, across the street from the White House, to record this conversation on December 4, 2024.

Steve Rosenberg, Founder and CEO of Greystone, shares his career journey and how he built one of the leading lenders in the multifamily space. Steve’s storytelling harkens back to the early episodes of Leading Voices, where we explored how these iconic leaders founded and scaled their businesses.

Cedric Bobo, Co-Founder and CEO of Project Destined, and Adrian Foley, Managing Partner in Brookfield’s Real Estate Group and President and CEO of Brookfield Properties’ development group, discuss how his training and education nonprofit has transformed lives and businesses through real world experience. Project Destined provides training, mentorship, internships and early career opportunities for young students, particularly students of color and military veterans, entering into the real estate business.

Originally recorded and released in the Fall of 2022, Ross Perot Jr., Chairman of Hillwood and real estate developer, talks about his varied businesses, inside and outside of real estate, including the development of the giant Alliance project in Fort Worth, developing public private partnership projects in the US and abroad, and about his father’s legacy, including a few words about his candidacy in the election for President in 1992. Legacy comes up right away as Ross reminisces about his father taking him to work, being the first to fly a helicopter around the world, and being a business partner with his dad.

Jon Lin, EVP and General Manager of Data Center Services at Equinix, talks through the major trends, drivers, and challenges of the data center business, the hottest sector in commercial real estate. This interview with Jon was recorded live at the Equinix regional office in Ashburn, Virginia, which is actually the data center capital of the world.

Mike Kingsella, President of Up for Growth, explains how basic supply and demand drives the housing crisis in our country, how multiple levels of public policy have exacerbated the situation, and suggestions for how we, as an industry and advocates for housing supply, can turn this around. As we have discussed and explored many times on Leading Voices, the housing crisis in our country is front and center in our national discussion and in the current Presidential race.

Matt Kelly, CEO of JBG Smith and Current Chair of NAREIT, tells the story of his company’s winning Amazon HQ2 for their National Landing site and shares his wisdom on corporate ethos, placemaking, and winning deals. In this second episode of our focus on REITs this month, Matt tells the story behind the Amazon HQ2 deal as well as the history of JBG Smith and its focus in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. In this second episode of our segment exploring the REIT world, Matt tells the story behind JBG Smith’s winning deal that transformed its Crystal City portfolio and land holdings into Amazon’s second headquarters.

Steve Wechsler, President and CEO of the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts, discusses the history of REITs, the current policy agenda, and the impact of institutional real estate, and REITs specifically, across the global economy. It wouldn’t be far from the truth to say that many months are “REIT month” on this podcast, however, in this two part series, we are focusing on REITs in our September podcasts.

Andy Lubershane, Partner and Head of Research at Energy Impact Partners, breaks down how real estate and climate tech can work towards creating a clean energy future. In part two of our annual climate series, Andy provides valuable insight into how Energy Impact Partners (EIP) approaches its investments in climate tech and energy generation in the real estate business.