ANNE BABINEAU Partner Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer PA Woodbridge, NJ With over 20 years in the industry—most spent as a partner at Wilentz—Babineau heads the firm’s Redevelopment Law practice and directs its Redevelopment Strategic Business unit. She represents a variety of clients on redevelopment projects in New Jersey, including a brownfields proj- ect funded through redevelopment area bonds in Carteret as well as a similar venture in Perth Amboy. She also negotiated with individual developers on municipally owned land along the Hoboken Waterfront. When she’s not in the office, Babineau lectures on rede- velopment issues for the New Jersey Institute of Continuing Legal Education, New Jersey Future and NJSBA and on legal issues related to redevelopment for a course sponsored by Rutgers University/NJ Department of Community Affairs.
Women continue to make great strides in the commercial real estate
industry, with a selection of notable standouts profiled here
From sales and leasing transactions to investment banking and economic development, the women profiled on the following pages have done it all. Their efforts and creativity have advanced the industry in ways that too often go unnoticed. Many of the executives that are featured also played instrumental roles in keeping their companies afloat during the downturn. And some even launched their own firms in the midst of the financial crisis.
Though women are still underrepresented in the industry, those presented have not simply cracked the glass ceiling; they’ve seriously weakened its foundations. The editors of Real Estate Forum received nearly 300 nominations for this year’s Women of
Influence feature, out of which we selected 53 whose accomplishments were particularly impressive.
SARAH ABRAMS
President
Fidelity Real Estate Co. LLC
Boston
Abrams leads the organization responsible for
providing all corporate real estate and location
strategy services to Fidelity’s business units globally. She oversees a portfolio of 10 million square
feet with an annual operating budget in excess of
$400 million. In the past year, Abrams completed a
multi-phase real estate plan that resulted in the development of over
two million square feet of space to accommodate Fidelity’s businesses
throughout the US, Canada, India, Ireland, Japan and the UK. She
is the current president of NAIOP Massachusetts and the New
England Chapter of CoreNet Global. Despite her success, Abrams is
leaving Fidelity after 14 years to pursue new real estate ventures. “In
the past 30 years, the US economy created 40 million jobs, but is net
zero in job creation over the past decade, and down eight million
during this recession,” she says. “At the same time, lots of office product was added to the supply. Even at a reasonable clip, we won’t make
up those jobs for four to five years. I am more bullish on multifamily
as lenders go back to requiring substantial down payments, driving
more people to rent longer.”
SUSAN ANSEL
EVP and Chief Operating Officer
Gables Residential
Atlanta
Over the past year, the 23-year veteran has completed the lease-up and stabilization of 950
multifamily units throughout five developments for Gables. Ansel also grew the firm’s
third-party management business, with the addition of 16 contracts. She was recently named to the
2010 Broadband Properties MDU Hall of Fame Top 25. This is in
addition to memberships in the National Multi Housing Council,
the Real Estate Council of Dallas and the National Apartment
Association. She says, “Technology will play an ever-more important
role in the push toward more efficient and effective operating platforms, and talented organizations will determine favorable ways to
take advantage of opportunities available.”
HEIDI BARATH
Executive Director, Transaction Advisory Services
Ernst & Young
Dallas
With 21 years of industry experience under her
belt, Barath is the highest-ranking female executive in Ernst & Young’s US Transaction Real
Estate practice. Showing a commitment that is
not easy to come by these days, Barath began at
E&Y 15 years ago and worked her way up the ranks.
In a largely male-dominated business, few women have achieved
sustained success in this sector, but Barath has “had fun doing it.”
During the past 12 months, she assisted in three major corporate
transactions that involved real estate assets: Dell Computer’s
$3.9-billion acquisition of Perot Systems, Genband’s acquisition of
Nortel Carrier VoIP and Application Solutions Business for an
undisclosed amount; and Service Corp. International’s $256-mil-
lion Keystone North America Inc. acquisition. In addition to her
participation in the March of Dimes, she is a member of the Urban
Land Institute, the Real Estate Council and Commercial Real Estate
Women. “Succeeding today requires unprecedented flexibility,
agility and a tolerance for ambiguity,” she shares.
