ATLANTA—KC Conway has commercial real estate in his blood—almost literally. The senior vice president of SunTrust Bank dives into his story in part one of this exclusive interview series.

GlobeSt.com: How did you get your start in commercial real estate?

Conway: Honestly, DNA had a material part in my foray into commercial real estate. I grew up in a well-known Colorado real estate family that were self-made Irish immigrants.

My grandfather was the only Denver real estate businessman to avoid bankruptcy during the Great Depression—and he was co-founder of one of Denver's most notable real estate brokerage firms heading into the Great Depression: Conway-Bogue Realty.  Started in 1906 as a partnership between my grandfather, John F. Conway, and a close business partner, Marcus Bogue, Conway-Bogue grew to become Denver's largest full-service real estate company by 1927.

At that peak in the company's history, my grandfather had an uneasy feeling about the economy and Conway-Bogue was sold to Henry VanSchaack enabling VanSchaack to become Denver's largest full-service real estate company. My late father was one of the founders of Vail Colorado.  He was the “land-guy” that assembled the Hanson ranch comprising the prime 500-acre Vail Valley for a whopping price of $55,000 or $110 per acre.

Today, that may arguably have been the best non-government involved land acquisition transaction in US history post the Great Depression. Below is a section from the attached original Vail Stock Prospectus—the real Vail story.

GlobeSt.com: What have been some of the key turning points in your career?

Conway: Ironically, the key turning points have been the ones that required getting out of my “comfort zone.” The first one was leaving Colorado in 1981 to go to a part of the country in which I had no relatives or family infrastructure.

I was offered a full academic scholarship to Emory University in Atlanta and took it over acceptance to Notre Dame—every Irish mother's dream for a son—or an appointment to the Air Force Academy, a dream of my father's as a retired Captain in the predecessor to the Air Force—the Army Air Corps. Emory gave me a great business school education that led to my real estate finance foundation that I rely upon today.

Next was taking my first job out of business school as a real estate appraiser trainee in Phoenix, AZ—again where I knew no-one—with a long-time friend of my father's from their Equitable Real Estate training days. Walt Winius, Jr. hired me as an entry appraiser in 1985. Walt immersed me in more real estate matters in the next two years than I would get exposure to during the next decade of my career.  Walt gave me a foundation in real estate that no graduate school could have offered in the 1980s. Because I risked getting out of my comfort zone post business school and not taking a traditional job in banking or as a management trainee and instead opting to try something totally foreign to me—real estate valuation—I obtained experience and exposure to real estate that never would have happened had I not been willing to get out of my comfort zone once again. To this day, I credit most of my success to that solid start and introduction to the most influential industry group in my career—the counselors of real estate.

Third was my fortune to be hired by the Federal Reserve in 2005 following the merger of my then employer SouthTrust Bank and Wachovia Bank. I was asked to aide in building a real estate center for bank examiners. After 2 years of effort 2005-2007, the tools and market intelligence that I built with other Federal Reserve Bank colleagues became most valuable by 2008 and the onset of the Financial Crisis.

I was asked to brief then Chairman Bernanke, the board of governors and almost all the 12 Federal Reserve District Bank Presidents from mid-2006 through the financial crisis and my departure at the end of 2010. I went onto become the commercial real estate risk specialty officer at the NY Fed following Tim Geithner's departure to become O'Bama's Treasury Secretary.

Finally, the most recent key turning point in my career was being invited to become a Counselor of Real Estate. I was invited to this ultimate of real estate industry groups in April 2009. It consists of a mere 1,100 of the best and brightest in the commercial real estate industry across the globe.

This group oozes real estate subject matter expertise across all disciplines from appraisal and tax appeal to design and development to academic and architecture.  These are the elite in commercial real estate in both industry and academia.

The Counselors of Real Estate are the leading professional group that provides and publishes more thought leading content and real world programs to tackle the commercial real estate industry's most challenging issues ranging from sustainable land and water resource management, to sustainable urban development without paralyzing gridlock to aquaponics and how 3D Print manufacturing will revolutionize our manufacturing and supply chain. Being a member of the Counselors of Real Estate is my daily professional vitamin B shot.

Atlanta is Booming. Are You In The Know? Join us at RealShare ATLANTA on April 28 for impactful information from the leaders in Atlanta CRE.

ATLANTA—KC Conway has commercial real estate in his blood—almost literally. The senior vice president of SunTrust Bank dives into his story in part one of this exclusive interview series.

GlobeSt.com: How did you get your start in commercial real estate?

Conway: Honestly, DNA had a material part in my foray into commercial real estate. I grew up in a well-known Colorado real estate family that were self-made Irish immigrants.

My grandfather was the only Denver real estate businessman to avoid bankruptcy during the Great Depression—and he was co-founder of one of Denver's most notable real estate brokerage firms heading into the Great Depression: Conway-Bogue Realty.  Started in 1906 as a partnership between my grandfather, John F. Conway, and a close business partner, Marcus Bogue, Conway-Bogue grew to become Denver's largest full-service real estate company by 1927.

At that peak in the company's history, my grandfather had an uneasy feeling about the economy and Conway-Bogue was sold to Henry VanSchaack enabling VanSchaack to become Denver's largest full-service real estate company. My late father was one of the founders of Vail Colorado.  He was the “land-guy” that assembled the Hanson ranch comprising the prime 500-acre Vail Valley for a whopping price of $55,000 or $110 per acre.

Today, that may arguably have been the best non-government involved land acquisition transaction in US history post the Great Depression. Below is a section from the attached original Vail Stock Prospectus—the real Vail story.

GlobeSt.com: What have been some of the key turning points in your career?

Conway: Ironically, the key turning points have been the ones that required getting out of my “comfort zone.” The first one was leaving Colorado in 1981 to go to a part of the country in which I had no relatives or family infrastructure.

I was offered a full academic scholarship to Emory University in Atlanta and took it over acceptance to Notre Dame—every Irish mother's dream for a son—or an appointment to the Air Force Academy, a dream of my father's as a retired Captain in the predecessor to the Air Force—the Army Air Corps. Emory gave me a great business school education that led to my real estate finance foundation that I rely upon today.

Next was taking my first job out of business school as a real estate appraiser trainee in Phoenix, AZ—again where I knew no-one—with a long-time friend of my father's from their Equitable Real Estate training days. Walt Winius, Jr. hired me as an entry appraiser in 1985. Walt immersed me in more real estate matters in the next two years than I would get exposure to during the next decade of my career.  Walt gave me a foundation in real estate that no graduate school could have offered in the 1980s. Because I risked getting out of my comfort zone post business school and not taking a traditional job in banking or as a management trainee and instead opting to try something totally foreign to me—real estate valuation—I obtained experience and exposure to real estate that never would have happened had I not been willing to get out of my comfort zone once again. To this day, I credit most of my success to that solid start and introduction to the most influential industry group in my career—the counselors of real estate.

Third was my fortune to be hired by the Federal Reserve in 2005 following the merger of my then employer SouthTrust Bank and Wachovia Bank. I was asked to aide in building a real estate center for bank examiners. After 2 years of effort 2005-2007, the tools and market intelligence that I built with other Federal Reserve Bank colleagues became most valuable by 2008 and the onset of the Financial Crisis.

I was asked to brief then Chairman Bernanke, the board of governors and almost all the 12 Federal Reserve District Bank Presidents from mid-2006 through the financial crisis and my departure at the end of 2010. I went onto become the commercial real estate risk specialty officer at the NY Fed following Tim Geithner's departure to become O'Bama's Treasury Secretary.

Finally, the most recent key turning point in my career was being invited to become a Counselor of Real Estate. I was invited to this ultimate of real estate industry groups in April 2009. It consists of a mere 1,100 of the best and brightest in the commercial real estate industry across the globe.

This group oozes real estate subject matter expertise across all disciplines from appraisal and tax appeal to design and development to academic and architecture.  These are the elite in commercial real estate in both industry and academia.

The Counselors of Real Estate are the leading professional group that provides and publishes more thought leading content and real world programs to tackle the commercial real estate industry's most challenging issues ranging from sustainable land and water resource management, to sustainable urban development without paralyzing gridlock to aquaponics and how 3D Print manufacturing will revolutionize our manufacturing and supply chain. Being a member of the Counselors of Real Estate is my daily professional vitamin B shot.

Atlanta is Booming. Are You In The Know? Join us at RealShare ATLANTA on April 28 for impactful information from the leaders in Atlanta CRE.