Gary Beban of CBRE Accepts Innovator Award

In front of a capacity crowd at the UW-Madison Pyle Center, CBRE Executive Gary Beban received the Wisconsin Real Estate Program’s Innovator Award on Thursday, September 27, jointly awarded by the UW Real Estate Club and the James A. Graaskamp Center for Real Estate. The award was presented by Michael Brennan, Executive Director for the Graaskamp Center, and aims to celebrate the innovative achievements of key individuals within the real estate industry.

Gary began his presentation titled “Supporting Innovation” by tracing the trajectory of the company, which is now known as CBRE,  from 1971, his first year with the company, through the current year. Drawing on his experience as a history major during his days at UCLA, Gary brought a holistic approach to real estate throughout his career, noting that in order to be most effective, one must "understand your vertical". Put differently, you should know where your industry and company have been and where it currently is in order to create an innovative strategy for future growth. 

This strategic framework guided Gary, especially when he was named President in 1987, in his pursuit of repositioning the brokerage firm into a global, vertically integrated leader within the commercial real estate sector. Gary achieved this by understanding and capitalizing on two critical changes that would hit the industry: 1) the global circulation of capital; and 2) global corporate real estate services. With strategic acquisitions around the globe that linked CBRE offices across time zones, Gary established a formidable network through which CBRE employees were producing at every hour of every day, a far cry from a company with one office in San Francisco back in 1906. Furthermore, these acquisitions pushed the brokerage's vertical integration to new levels, as evidenced by the acquisition of Insignia that provided CBRE the industry's largest proprietary market research arm.

As was appropriate considering the student-focused setting, Gary provided a strategic industry look-ahead providing a look into CBRE’s Workplace Strategy. The basis of this strategy is acknowledgement of the original dynamics of developer, investor, user, and capital, synthesized with the more recent trends of advanced technology and telecommunications. Simply put, firms now view reducing costs inherent with occupying space as strategic strategies in their long-term planning. CBRE fits this within their vision by assuming increasingly mobile teams and occupancy square foot per employee from 350 to 50 to better serve their client base.

His closing remarks included words of wisdom for the attending students: stay current with global developments, and hone your financial skills and vertical knowledge. These certainly have proved fruitful for Gary throughout his impressive career at CBRE. The Wisconsin Real Estate Program was proud to welcome Gary to our UW-Madison campus!

Jonathan Brown comes to Madison from Washington, DC, where he managed downtown Class A office buildings for Tishman Speyer. Jonathan plans to leverage his prior experience with financial and analytic tools gained during the MBA program to develop and invest in urban commercial properties.

A Fast and Furious Start

It hasn’t even been a month yet? The atmosphere here has been electric during MBA Orientation Week and the start of classes – not to mention the first Badger football games! Like the other 12 incoming Real Estate MBA students, I began refining my resume and elevator pitch right off the bat for WREAA’s “The Economic Tightrope” Biennial Conference held in Madison on September 13^th and 14^th.  During the conference, we were able to connect with many real estate alumni from around the country, and listen to panel discussions ranging from “Cap Rate Arbitrage versus Income Growth” to “The Multifamily Land Grab.” This was certainly a tremendous opportunity to start out the school year. Additionally, we have already hosted several representatives from several companies, like Prudential and KTR Capital Partners, who presented pitches and are actively recruiting.

Alumni Network

The outstanding and supportive alumni network is one reason that I felt compelled to enroll at Wisconsin. Within the first week, our real estate class was visited by local alumni working in the industry who spoke candidly about their experiences and provided hints and suggestions for future job opportunities. Building on this spirit, each real estate MBA has been paired with an Alumni Mentor. I can speak from my own personal experience in conjunction with that of my fellow classmates in saying that our Mentors have provided us with early benefits in focusing our job searches.

Experiences in Madison

For all you food lovers, Madison has a lot to offer. The Farmer’s Market on Saturday by the State Capitol offers a tremendous variety of local produce and goods. Also, over Labor Day, my fellow incoming real estate MBA Amber House visited “Taste of Madison”, a wide assortment of offerings from local restaurants. Amber’s favorite dish, a creation of Sa Bai Thong Thai Restaurant, was the Shrimp Purse, a delicious shrimp and chicken concoction wrapped in a spring roll skin and served with their signature Green Curry. That same weekend, another classmate Michael Zollner attended the 38^th Annual Wisconsin State Cow Chip Throw & Festival outside Madison in Prairie du Sac. In lieu of a report, he recommends that everyone try out this unique Wisconsin experience to get the full flavor of the event, so to speak.

Upcoming Adventures and Activities

Our Real Estate Club is hosting several upcoming events.  We had our first meeting on September 20 with Prudential as guest, and an October trip is planned to San Francisco.  It will include site and development tours (e.g. Google’s campus, San Antonio Station), and professional presentations by Northwestern Mutual, Principal, Equity Residential, and more. Back in Madison, four of our real estate MBAs, including yours truly, competed against the other specializations in a Golf Outing on September 21 at The Oaks Golf Course in Cottage Grove.

Jonathan Brown comes to Madison from Washington, DC, where he managed downtown Class A office buildings for Tishman Speyer. Jonathan plans to leverage his prior experience with financial and analytic tools gained during the MBA program to develop and invest in urban commercial properties.

Join the Real Estate Club for "fantasy" investment trading

Undergraduate real estate major Stephen Rothstein (BBA '12) has created a team on a "fantasy" investment trading site for Real Estate Club members to challenge each other in the game of REIT trading.

Real estate investors may be the most talented fantasy football players in the world and not even know it. Their inherent understanding of risk/return analysis makes them dangerous opponents in any league. For instance, Aaron Rodgers is a quality core asset. The definition of consistency, he is a class A fully occupied office building with credible tenants signed to long term leases. On the other hand, Michael Vick is a more opportunistic play. His ability to earn rushing and passing yards give him the potential to be the most dynamic player in football--that is, if he stays healthy, and out of trouble.

UW FREIT is a fantasy REIT league that captures the competition of a fantasy football league, while educating students on investment in real estate investment trusts. Rather than holding a position in a quarterback or running back, students must long or short office and retail REITs. A virtual investment platform called Updown has made this contest possible. To win, one will need to employ an opportunistic portfolio strategy, despite the widely considered core nature of REITs.

Students are signing up now for this interesting and fun contest, as they indirectly network with other members of the league. You can join in and match your know-how and talents against Wisconsin's best and brightest. If you’d like to learn more about UW FREIT, leave a comment below and we'll be in touch. The current league will run until May 2012.

UW Real Estate Club Spring Trip: Boston

On March 14-16, twenty-five students from the Real Estate Club (and Club adviser Sharon McCabe) headed east to tour the Boston market. The trip started with a networking event at The Hampshire House (you may know it as the Cheers bar) on Wednesday night, where students were able to interact with local area alums in addition to those in town for the PREA conference. We were also able to host some prospective students that lived in the area.

Thursday morning started with meetings at Jones Lang LaSalle and the Boston Redevelopment Authority, providing students with an overview of the Boston market. We then moved on to a property tour of One Federal, a Class A office building undergoing a $19M renovation, that was organized by alum Brian Berry. Afterwards, students lunched at the historic Faneuil Hall/Quincy Market before heading off by bus to East Cambridge. Peter Calkins of Forest City walked us through his company's collaboration with MIT in developing a unique mixed-use research park serving the city's life science industry. From there, the bus tour continued throughout the city, viewing new developments as they made their into the Seaport district. Alum Jake Maliel set up a tour of One Marina Park Dr. with CBRE, a newly completed building overlooking the Boston harbor. We learned about the area's goal to become the 'Innovation District,' highlighted by Vertex's 1.1M square foot lease signed in the area last year. After finishing the tour, the group met local alums for a seafood dinner at Legal Sea Foods -a Boston institution.

Friday morning started right where we left off, touring the Liberty Hotel. This unique redevelopment project was completed in 2007, after serving nearly 150 years as a Suffolk County jail. Students then got on 'The T' to tour the newly renovated Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Alum Paul Gilbert, an overseer of the Museum, organized the tour of the $100M+ expansion, discussing in detail the design and financing of the new building.

The trip proved to be a great success, and many students were able to stay in town for the weekend's St. Patrick's Day festivities. Much thanks to Jill Hatton and Bob Schneiders for being intimately involved in the planning process, in addition to alums Kevin Wall, Peter Tedesco, Bruce Guenther, Jeff Herscott, Laura Miller, and Jason Rothenberg and Graaskamp Executive Director Mike Brennan for attending the week's events.

Brad Olsen Visits Real Estate Club

Brad Olsen of Atlantic Partners spoke at the Real Estate Club meeting to kick of the spring semester and help prepare the students for the upcoming Real Estate Club job fair. Olsen is a longtime friend of the Real Estate program and has been coming to speak since 1983. In an effort to date his start with the program, he cited an early talk he gave as being the impetus for now retired Senior Lecturer Rod Matthews’ efforts to transform UW into a hub for international real estate. He asked for a show of hands from the 100+ students and staff in attendance as to who possessed a passport. All but three had a passport, whereas at the beginning of Olsen’s relationship with UW, only two individuals had possessed passports. In no uncertain terms, Olsen made it clear how broad-ranging the scope of the program has come.

Olsen did his undergrad work at Princeton and received his JD from Harvard. Following six years in law, he moved into the real estate arena, where he helped Richard Ellis to raise money for investment into real estate funds. In 1994, Olsen got tired of living in Chicago, so he left Richard Ellis and moved to Florida, where he subsequently played 66 rounds of golf in three months. He and his wife eventually landed in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he formed Atlantic Partners.

At Atlantic Partners, Olsen works to link global capital with US real estate. Most recently, he’s been working with USAA to raise money in Europe for a fund that is buying government-leased office buildings. As Olsen describes it, “I’m eHarmony for real estate investors. I’m in the business of relationships.” Olsen spends 70% of his time raising capital and 30% advising European investors on US Assets.

Following his history and current dealings, Olsen began coaching the students on how to best prepare for the upcoming job fair. He first asked the students for a show of hands of who had reviewed his website when they learned that he was coming to speak. He used this to transition into the importance of reviewing the 30+ employers coming to the career fair and honing in on those in which you’re interested. He then advised students to be looking for a connection point with the potential employers. He cited the ability it gives you to differentiate yourself in the eyes of recruiters from other candidates. As a follow up he advised students to always send a thank you email and to not be afraid to follow up periodically, but to be sure that the follow up is substantive as opposed to simply a “tickler” email. He recommended that if a student found an online article which he thought would be of particular interest to a person, to email that article to their contact along with a brief note. Olsen closed by citing the overall strength of the Wisconsin Real Estate Alumni Association, and its spot as one of the top alumni associations in the US. He urged students to join and to utilize that tool.

The next morning, Olsen met with the 1^st year MBA students to discuss strategy for their upcoming visit to the MIPIM conference in Cannes France, at which Dean François Ortalo-Magné will be giving the wrap-up keynote address (click here to see our past coverage of MIPIM). Then the Global Real Estate Masters (GREM) students joined in the second hour and Olsen dialogued on international topics such as German life insurance groups’ movement into investing in real estate debt.

The University of Wisconsin Real Estate program was honored to have Brad Olsen come and invest his time and is perpetually thankful for his selfless commitment to the program.

Jordan Denzer comes to Madison from Dallas, TX (it is often joked that he is one of the international students). Previously, Jordan managed corporate flexible spending accounts, but decided that he wanted to get into real estate development, which initiated the move to Madison. Currently, Jordan is interested in getting into historic redevelopment and/or mixed-use development projects.

Terence Wall Articulates the Entrepreneurial Mindset to the REC

This past Thursday, following the elections for new officers of the Wisconsin Real Estate Club, we were pleased to have Terence Wall as our distinguished speaker for the evening. Wall is a dedicated alum of the Wisconsin Real Estate program, and offers his time to mentor students and to share his insightful experiences as a self-starter in real estate. His company, T. Wall Properties, is an award-winning development firm based here in Madison that owns more than 2.4 million square feet of space and over 750 acres of land.

To start the evening, he gave us somewhat of a mock “pitch” presentation, similar to what we would see as potential equity investors. This included information about the due diligence performed on his recent project, the facts and specifications about the buildings and surrounding area, and his persuasive evidence as to why this development is sure to succeed.

Wall shared insider tips and tricks to his practice - the type of information that us Real Estate Club members really get to benefit from. This information ranged from his tactics of attracting new investors, retaining old investors, accumulating relevant data, and raising the proper amount of capital. He also shared cost saving techniques from a development standpoint, particularly relating to taxable income and the ability to take advantage of flexible depreciation standards.

When asked to share a one of his greatest learning experience, Wall reflected on his endeavor to develop property in Phoenix, AZ. This began as a favor for a friend that was looking to house his business, and turned into a very profitable investment. Wall proceeded with another opportunity in the area, and was again hugely successful in turning the property over in a very short period while doubling his money. When another opportunity came, he decided to press his luck as a result of pressure from the individuals surrounding him in his company, and reinvest in another large industrial property. “This was against my better judgment” he added, “but I went ahead and did it anyway.” As you might’ve guessed, the recession hit shortly after the investment, and the property sat unoccupied. It was eventually sold for pennies on the dollar. Wall reflected on his decision, and how a string of successful developments might cause one to deviate from their established strategy and push the envelope too far.

A key take away from the evening: “Go with your instincts”.

Real Estate Club Build Day with Habitat for Humanity!

On Friday, October 28, 2011, members from the UW Real Estate Club volunteered with the UW Madison Chapter of Habitat for Humanity, an organization that builds homes for families in need and provides mortgages at a zero percent interest rate. Included in the group were club members and Graaskamp Center affiliates Grant Keebler, Sam Schreiber, Kelsey Friederich, Alison Zuba, Courtney Flanders, and Martha Flanders (pictured left to right). We had gorgeous weather and a positive attitude - what better way to spend a beautiful Friday afternoon in Madison?

The house is being built for Song Vang (pictured far right), Neng Cheng, and their five adorable children. They currently live in an apartment building, infested with cockroaches and with landlords who do not care about their tenant’s living conditions. The family’s dream is to own a house one day with enough room for their children to grow up happy and healthy, in a loving and warm environment. Song devotes every weekend at the build site, working with different Madison volunteers and sharing his story. It was such a moving experience to work alongside the homeowner, Song, as his dream home was being built.

Construction began on October 1, 2011 and will continue into the winter. When we arrived, the basement was underway and we all worked on different projects ranging from measuring and cutting 2x4’s, nailing an interior wall together with three separate doorways, constructing the window supports, and a final (and very intense) group project involving the movement of a heavy shower base. The majority of the volunteers had minimal construction experience, so the day was spent learning from the other volunteer’s prior experience, from the projects director and UW-Madison Habitat representative Devin (pictured top left), from the homeowner Song, and from the project manager, Justin (pictured top right).

Working with Habitat for Humanity was an incredible experience, and is highly recommended by all of the volunteers who participated. If you are at UW student or employee and are interested in helping Song and Neng build their new home, contact Devin Burke at workprojects@uwhabitat.org. For more information about Real Estate Club volunteer opportunities, you can contact Courtney Flanders at flanders2@wisc.edu.

Be prepared--for the Wisconsin Real Estate Career Fair tonight

The Wisconsin Real Estate Club hosts its career fair tonight in Grainger Hall, and we're expecting a great turnout of employers and students.

Wednesday, February 9th
6-8 pm Expo, Grainger Hall Plenary Room
8-9 pm Reception, Grainger Hall East Atrium

We talked to Sharon McCabe, Graaskamp Center director of MBA recruiting and career services, on what advice she gives to students preparing for the event. Here are her top 10 tips:

1. Attire: Dress professionally. (That includes clean fingernails and fresh breath!).
2. Have many copies of your resume, bring a portfolio to hold them. Having your own business card will make you stand out.
3. Collect business cards from company representatives. Remember to send a thank you e-mail (or hand-written note).
4. When you get to the fair, start with a walk around the room to get your bearings, see where everyone is located.
5. Have a story to tell. Practice (out loud) your 30-second elevator speech. Show your passion for real estate. Be confident and friendly. Have a friend ask you questions. Practice! Remember that you want to try to impress every employer, even a company in which you may be less interested.
6. Listen to what your fellow students are saying. You can learn from them, too.
7. Research all the companies coming to the fair. Know the basics of what they do. Be prepared to say why you would be an asset to their company.
8. Check some of the on-line resources for current news about the company: GlobeSt.com, CoStar.com, Real Estate Investment SmartBrief, etc.
9. If there is a job description available from the company (company website, BuckyNet, eRecruiting, WREAA website), read it and be prepared to say why you are a good candidate for the position.
10. Remember that you are selling both your personality and your skills. Some employers care more about your personality (hard-working, passionate, team-player, self-motivated, quick-study, etc) than about your specific skills. If your experience is limited, stress what you have learned in your classes and on Real Estate Club field trips. If you have leadership experience, make sure you mention that.

With these tips and your resume (and business card) in hand, you'll be ready to make the most of the fair. Here are some of the companies registered to attend:

Dominium
Duff & Phelps
Ernst & Young
Fiduciary Real Estate Development
Gorman & Company
Green Courte Partners
Heitman
Inland Companies
JP Morgan Chase
Kohl's Department Stores
NAI MLG Commercial
Realogic Analytics
Ridge Property Trust
State of Wisconsin Investment Board
T Wall Properties
Ventas
Waterton Associates

Hersch Klaff Receives the Real Estate Club Innovator Series Award

Today we have another entry in our Meet Our Current Students Series:

At the Real Estate Club’s first spring semester meeting on Thursday, January 28, Michael Brennan, executive director of the Graaskamp Center, presented the Innovator Award to Hersch Klaff, managing director of Klaff Realty, a Chicago-based privately owned real estate investment company. Mr. Klaff is the fourth recipient of the award which was established to recognize outstanding individuals who have made a creative mark on the real estate industry.

Klaff moved to the United States from South Africa in 1978 to begin a career in accounting. After learning about the real estate industry from his clients, he left accounting and pursued his real estate broker’s license in Illinois. Klaff Realty was started in 1982. He closed his first deal, the $12 million acquisition of a former Marshall Field's building, after reading about the owner’s desire to sell in a newspaper, camping out at their office for three days waiting for a meeting and convincing them to give him a few days to find buyers. The deal closed in one month.

The focus of his speech was the constant search for new ideas and opportunities. Klaff began the first part of his real estate investment career acquiring large corporate assets in the Chicago Loop and repositioning them into multi-tenant buildings. After the real estate crash in the early 1990s, he saw an opportunity to buy distressed assets in suburban Chicago from banks that were eager to sell. While the locations of these assets were outside of his comfort zone, he used the same investment guidelines he had always used to produce returns of around 20% in a three to five year timeframe.

His next move was to team up with companies that specialized in liquidating retail stores, where the stores’ inventories were the focus and the real estate was rarely considered. This strategy involved acquiring assets from bankruptcy court, another first for Klaff. Going through and understanding this process gave Klaff a niche opportunity as the only real estate company utilizing this avenue for acquisition opportunities.

Klaff is currently searching for his next great idea, which may involve real estate in South America or a return to Chicago (Klaff was a strong bidder in the 2009 sale of the Chicago Cubs, which, believe it or not, was a real estate play). While many would see the obstacles in investing in a new arena such as a foreign nation or a baseball team, Klaff sees the opportunities that no one else can.

The Innovator Award was conceived from the paper entitled "Tradition and Innovation," written by Stephen Malpezzi, academic director of the Graaskamp Center. The paper's central theme is that a rich history cannot be established without continually implementing innovation. The award, sponsored by the UW Real Estate Club and the Graaskamp Center, is typically handed out each semester.

Eric Dowling is a first-year MBA student in the James A. Graaskamp Center for Real Estate. Eric plans to combine his previous real estate experience with his MBA education to establish a career in private equity investments.

Where can you find the best in up and coming real estate professionals?

...at the Wisconsin Real Estate Club's 2011 Career Fair, of course!

February 9th
6:00-9:00 pm
Grainger Hall on the UW-Madison campus

The 11th annual event brings together nearly 200 undergraduate and MBA students and employers in a range of real estate sectors for a concentrated evening of networking. This year's event kicks off with an open house in the offices of the James A. Graaskamp Center for Real Estate, followed by the evening expo in the Plenary Room of Grainger Hall, and concluding with a reception in the East Atrium.

Whether your company is looking to hire now or in the future, this is the place to meet and network with top students in all areas of real estate.

Who Should Attend

• Appraisal companies
• Asset and property managers
• Institutional investors
• Insurance companies
• Investment banks
• Mortgage lenders
• Pension funds
• Private equity firms
• Real estate consulting firms
• Real estate developers
• Real estate investment trusts
• Real estate operating companies
• Residential or commercial brokerage firms

A few spaces are still available to exhibit your company. Click here to visit the career fair page and to register.

Career outlook and on-campus recruiting

According to an article in this week's Wisconsin School of Business Gazette,

On-campus recruiting statistics appear promising after the recruiting slump of the 2009-2010 academic year.

The MBA Career Management Center reports growth in the number of organizations coming to campus to interview MBA students. There was a 30% increase over last year in on-campus recruiting, including the additions of highly regarded companies such as 3M, Colgate-Palmolive, Simon Property Group, Tishman Speyer, and Rexnord Industries.

2011 is frequently mentioned as a transitional year for real estate as sectors begin to show signs of movement and improvement. Companies are now looking to fill vacancies that had been left open during the worst of the crisis. Many firms believe they will be net hirers in 2011.

The Wisconsin Real Estate Club is actively reaching out to companies to participate in its 2011 career fair to be held on February 9th in Madison. The 11th annual event brings together nearly 200 undergraduate and MBA students and employers in a range of real estate sectors for a concentrated evening of networking.

This year's event kicks off with an open house in the offices of the James A. Graaskamp Center for Real Estate, followed by the evening expo in the Plenary Room of Grainger Hall, and concluding with a reception in the East Atrium.

Wisconsin's best and brightest real estate students are available for internships and full-time employment. Companies are encouraged to sign up now for best placement for the expo and to make the most of time on campus by announcing internship or job openings ahead of time through the online recruiting system. Employers can start collecting student resumes right away and even schedule interviews in advance.

Past participants in the career fair have included T. Wall Properties, NAI MLG Commercial, Heitman, Dominium, Transwestern, Harrison Street Capital, Northwestern Mutual, Ernst & Young, U.S. Bank, Ridge Property Trust, Waterton Residential, Grubb & Ellis, Apex, Realogic, and others.

Every February, the Real Estate Club hosts a career fair featuring representatives from regional and national companies looking to connect with Wisconsin’s talented pool of real estate students. The Club, one of the largest and most active student-run organizations on campus, is open to graduate and undergraduate students.

To find out more about the career fair and to register, visit the career fair website.

Senior housing gets ready for a boom

The Graaskamp Center and the Wisconsin Real Estate Club were very glad to host executives from top senior housing and care real estate firms this week. The panel--including Ray Lewis, president of Ventas, Randy Richardson, president of Vi, and Ed Kenny, president of Life Care Services--was led by Robert Kramer, president of the National Investment Center for the Seniors Housing & Care Industry.

Their presentation to the club is available here. As you can see, the outlook is good for opportunities in a variety of senior housing types, driven by demographic trends. We look forward to watching developments in this sector.

Senior Housing/Care Symposium Tonight!

Alumni and friends of the Wisconsin Real Estate Program are invited to attend a special Real Estate Club meeting on tonight (Thursday, November 18) featuring a panel of four executives from top senior housing and care real estate firms. They will discuss the quickly changing and rapidly growing health care sector. You will learn how the Baby Boomers are already driving major changes in the product and how this combination of real estate and services is an explosive growth arena. Panelists include:

Randy Richardson, President, Vi
Ray Lewis, President, Ventas Healthcare Properties
Ed Kenny, President and CEO, Life Care Services
Robert G. Kramer, President, National Investment Center for the Seniors Housing & Care Industry

When: 6:30pm on Thursday, November 18th
Where: Pyle Center on 702 Langdon Street, Madison, WI
Attire: Business casual
RSVP: No RSVP necessary

Setting off for Seattle

Students and members of the UW Real Estate Club are traveling to Seattle this week on the fall semester field trip.

With support and assistance from local alumni, over two days, they will visit sites including Russell Investments Center, Bellevue Towers, Melrose Market, and others. The Wisconsin Real Estate Alumni Association has organized a welcome reception for the club Wednesday evening October 27th. Please visit wreaa.org for details and to register.

The Real Estate Club, which is open to both undergraduate and MBA students in real estate, takes a field trip to a key U.S. real estate market each semester. Previous trips have visited Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston and New York to name a few.

Photo by Robert Badgley via stock.xchng

Real estate innovator: Laurence Geller

On Thursday March 11, the Real Estate Club will feature Laurence Geller, chairman and CEO of Strategic Hotels & Resorts. Mr. Geller will be presented with the club’s Innovator Award, established to recognize individuals who have accomplished outstanding innovation in the real estate industry. He is the second recipient of the award; prior honoree was Nicholas Billotti, chief executive officer of Turner International.

Mr. Geller founded Strategic Hotels & Resorts, a publicly traded REIT stock (BEE), in 1997. Strategic Hotels & Resorts is an owner and asset manager of hotels and resorts with a portfolio of upscale and luxury hotels and resorts in North America and Europe. Its unique hotels with complex operations, sophisticated customers and multiple revenue streams currently include 17 properties totaling 8,002 rooms. Properties are geographically diverse and include large convention hotels, business hotels and resorts, which are managed by internationally-known hotel management companies. Previously, Mr. Geller has held positions with Hyatt Development Corporation, Holiday Inns, Inc. and Grand Metropolitan Hotels in London. He is a graduate of Ealing Technical College’s school of hotel management and catering. He has over 40 years of experience in the lodging industry and has received numerous awards for his service to the lodging industry.

The event takes place in Madison at the Pyle Center's AT&T Lounge beginning at 6:30 pm with pizza and beverages. The presentation starts at 7 pm. (Map and directions.)

We hope you’ll join us.

Happenings in Southern California this week

Members of the UW Real Estate Club are traveling to Los Angeles this week. For three days, students will participate in site tours of key developments, meetings, networking dinners, and a variety of other opportunities to learn from industry leaders. The club typically takes two trips each year to major U.S. markets. Contacts with local alumni and principals are key and ultimately make it all possible. Past excursions include Boston, Washington DC, Phoenix, New York, and Denver.

This semester's trip to Southern California coincides with the WREAA's Southern California UW Real Estate Network Event on March 3rd in Santa Monica. For more information and last minute registration, visit the WREAA's Community Calendar.

Real Estate Club and employment outlook

Meet Our Current Students:

On of the strongest aspects of the Wisconsin Real Estate program is the Real Estate Club (REC), a student-run organization open to both MBA and undergraduate students. The Club allows students to connect directly with industry leaders through guest lecturers covering a wide range of topics including the capital markets, development, green building, and institutional trends.

Last week was a busy time for the Club. We listened to David Shulman discuss his long experience working with REITs. His background ranges from a dissertation in the mid-1970s, to his experience as a managing director at Lehman Brothers, to his perspective on present trends in the REIT markets.

The previous week, our guest was David Bossy, chairman of Mid-America Development Partners in Oak Brook, IL. David used his 25 year experience in retail brokerage to found the successful development company. The firm meets the challenges of building shopping centers, new urbanist stores, and urban big-box retail.

The most anticipated Club event occurred between those meetings, the REC Career Fair. Almost 20 companies, both regional and national, sent representatives to Grainger Hall looking for the next crop of real estate leaders. Club members were able to talk with a range of firms, determining what type of opportunities they are interested in pursuing and where those opportunities exist. Bank of America is flying two first-year MBA's to Charlotte, NC for final interviews this week. Overall the event was a success, with hiring prospects greatly improving over last year.

Travis Campbell is a first year MBA student in the James A. Graaskamp Center for Real Estate at the Wisconsin School of Business. He summer schedule is still open, if any employers are looking for a high-quality intern.

Employers: It's easy to recruit Wisconsin Real Estate students for internships and permanent positions, both at the undergraduate and graduate level. Visit our website for more information and to request a resume book today.

Real Estate students and alumni come together

Tonight is a joint meeting between the West Wisconsin region of the Wisconsin Real Estate Alumni Association and the UW Real Estate Club. WREAA members, students and guests are invited to attend.

The program includes two very special speakers:
John Wasik, author of The Cul-de-sac Syndrome, financial columnist for Bloomberg News and 11 other books, and
Rick Harrison, author of Prefurbia: Reinventing the Suburbs: From Disdainable to Sustainable, and site designer extraordinaire.

This is a great networking opportunity for students and grads from the Wisconsin Real Estate Program. If you're interested in becoming a member of the club or the alumni association, staff will be available at the event tonight at the Pyle Center, starting at 6:00.