Real Estate Unplugged: Recent Episodes
Gregg Cohen
Join host Gregg Cohen, Principal of Cresa, to learn about the journey of corporate real estate professionals and their varying paths to success. Real Estate Unplugged is meant to help educate the younger generation, real estate's future leaders by hearing the stories from senior real estate professionals.
Welcome to Episode 3 of Real Estate Unplugged. Today I’m here with Tom Donatelli, a recently retired real estate professional with Teva Pharmaceuticals. With 37 years in the corporate world, and 12 of those years in corporate real estate, Tom shares his wisdom with us and explains how he broke into the field. Tom jumped into real estate by chance, after starting in global procurement.
Tom’s story is especially inspiring for those looking to get into the real estate field, even with diverse backgrounds in other industries and roles. Tom dove right into his role in real estate and felt he had an advantage due to his finance background. He shares that when his company was looking to downsize, Tom identified opportunities to donate or auction distressed assets to help reduce the cash burn on the books.
Tom also goes over what he looked for when interviewing new candidates and what skills he feels are important to possess. In addition, he shares mistakes he made and what he learned from them. This behind-the-scenes look into Tom’s real estate career offers invaluable key insight!
Let me know what you think about this episode and stay tuned for Episode 4!
Welcome to Episode 2 of Real Estate Unplugged. Today I’m joined by Sajit Sankar, Vice President of Corporate Real Estate for MasterCard. He handles many real estate functions within this capacity. Sajit shares his background about growing up in a military family in India, and what he aspired to achieve as he grew up. He shares his own military background and the path that led him to where he is today. It took getting comfortable with being uncomfortable for Sajit to make the transition from a military career into real estate. One thing that Sajit stresses is the importance of education and he shares a message of inspiration for veterans that may be struggling with a career path. A great take-away message is that your job does not define you and you can do much more beyond your job. Sajit shares what two things he looks for in new hires and how being adaptable is important.
Join Gregg and Gig Codiga for an unplugged conversation about getting started in Commercial Real Estate