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Voices

question

What qualities define the next generation of real estate professionals, and how will this group contribute to the field?

“We were at a conference in Chicago. It was remarkable how much each of us contributed to those meetings. One of the professors explained that the reason we know a lot about these subjects is that we are driven to learn more about the broad range of new things in real estate. Our students are so energetic, they move us to improve ourselves. It's an upside down kind of thing.”
— Dr. Ken Patton, associate dean at the New York University Real Estate Institute



“I represent a number of major developers, tenants and investors, so I see real estate from multiple sides of transactions. I think real estate has become more demanding on skill sets. People with master's degrees in real estate are in demand, because real estate requires a more advanced financial engineering, as well as on the bricks-and-mortar side.”
— Jon Mechanic, chairman of real estate at Fried Frank law firm



“Over the past 10 to 12 years, formal graduate real estate programs have increased the level of sophistication of the people entering real estate finance. Today, entrance-level investment officers are fairly rigorously trained, much more on the institutional side. Entrepreneurially, there is more sophistication in the business, which is led by the education institutions.”
— Lawrence Fiedler, New York University professor and owner of JRM Development Enterprises in New York



“I believe due to their unique, directed and motivated attitudes, the next generation will make more balanced property-level and portfolio-level decisions. This will be their greatest contribution. The next generation is also extremely comfortable with computer-aided programs such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS). They're fluid with machine technology. The next generation will also be more comfortable making complex property-decisions and managing collaboratively as opposed to managing solo.”
— Michael Buckley, director of the real estate development program at Columbia University


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