CRE Women Look for Firms That Walk the Talk

DALLAS—For the fourth consecutive year, JLL has been named one of National Association of Female Executives’ Top Companies for Executive Women. The 2019 award recognizes 70 companies that demonstrate effectiveness in moving women to senior ranks, including mentoring, sponsorship, involvement in employee resource groups and leadership development training. The honor also reinforces JLL’s commitment to diversity.

“Teams of people from different backgrounds and with different experiences provide a diversity of thought that’s critical to helping our people and clients achieve their ambitions,” said Greg O’Brien, CEO, JLL Americas. “We’re pleased to receive this award for the fourth consecutive year, and we’ll continue to support and attract female employees because it’s imperative for our industry, the workforce and the broader economy.”

The 2019 NAFE Top 70 companies application includes more than 200 questions on topics including female representation at all levels, but especially the corporate officer and profit-and-loss leadership ranks. The application tracks and examines how many employees have access to programs and policies that promote advancement of women and how many take advantage of them, plus how companies train managers to help women advance. To be considered, companies must have a minimum of two women on boards of directors, a US-based CEO and at least 1,000 US employees.

“Women make up nearly half our board of directors and we have a thriving Women’s Business Network,” said Monica Marquez, head of diversity and inclusion, JLL Americas. “Our diverse workforce cultivates innovation, helps us stay at the forefront of an industry that is constantly changing and enables our people to do their best work for our clients.”

JLL deploys a leadership development program for all levels in the organization. It consists of four tiers of leadership development to address the unique challenges each manager encounters: leading self (professionals who do not manage others), leading others (managers of others), leading leaders (managers who manage other managers) and leading organizations (executive level).

JLL is partnering with external women’s development programs such as Leading Women Executives and Women’s Unlimited to grow its high-potential women at the management level. And, JLL holds an annual women’s summit focused on giving high-potential individual contributors and managers exposure to its strategy and C-suite leadership, and a means of developing leadership capabilities. Every year, approximately 60 women are selected for this elite program.

JLL closely monitors talent review and succession planning to ensure its high-potential women are given the right experiences to develop and grow into higher-level leadership positions. It will be adding an executive sponsor for JLL’s high-potential female management to ensure those women are discussed and considered in important leadership appointments.

JLL practices flexible working, allowing women to balance life in and outside of work hours. It offers maternity leave, parental leave, back-up childcare and many other benefits to help women take the time needed for family care.

“Diversity of thought is critical in creating solutions and innovating so our people and clients can achieve their ambitions. All differences matter, and we’re committed to hiring and promoting women throughout our firm,” Marquez tells GlobeSt.com.  “JLL has been recognized within and beyond its industry for its diversity and inclusion policies, and we’re dedicated to strengthening our culture of diversity moving forward.”

Two women with ties to the JLL Dallas office were recently promoted to leadership positions. Executive vice president Brooke Armstrong was recently elevated to the office tenant rep lead for the Dallas office and Kimarie Ankenbrand, formerly of the JLL Dallas team, was named the head of Raleigh-Durham office.

The office tenant rep business line is the largest within the region. Armstrong is the first female brokerage leader of a large market within JLL, and the only female brokerage leader at a large publicly traded real estate firm in Dallas.

She has been with the company for 15 years. In that time, Armstrong served three years on the JLL national leadership council, including her final year as president. She spearheaded initiatives involving diversity recruiting and retention, and also served as a mentor in JLL’s national mentor protégé program.

She ponders how can brokerage keep up with the rapid pace of change and technology without a balanced team that can listen and adapt to everything coming at it?

“We must look like our client base and understand their changing needs by offering diverse perspectives and approaches. I’m so proud to be part of a company that walks the talk,” Armstrong  tells GlobeSt.com. “I think the importance of women in CRE and all traditionally male-dominated industries has been there for decades. The difference now is we’re really paying attention to it in a meaningful way. Diversity of perspective and background is not just an important thing in our industry; it’s the only thing.”

Ankenbrand has been with JLL for 14 years. She is currently part of the broker leadership council, a leadership counsel advisory board member and mentor in JLL’s national mentor/protégé program.

“JLL is engaging in the diversity conversation in a way we have never done before,” she tells GlobeSt.com. “We recently redefined what diversity means to include not only gender and ethnicity, but also different skillsets, different points of view and prior work experience that allow diverse thoughts to form, which ultimately leads to better solutions for our clients. Improving our female presence at both the leadership and broker ranks of our client-facing business lines remains a top focus as that part of our business still has the biggest room for improvement.”

With all of that said, many would say the industry still has a long way to go. As of now, “the brokerage and investment areas of commercial real estate are only about 20% female (not including administrative and marketing support) and the percentage gets much lower the further up the ladder one goes,” says Diane Danielson, Sperry Van Ness chief operating officer.

➤➤ Join the GlobeSt.com Women of Influence 2019 conference July 10^th and 11^th in Broomfield, CO, which celebrates the women who drive the commercial real estate industry forward. The event will address the critical role of women in the CRE business. Click here to register and view the agenda.