School-wide Program
The PPIL is a co-curricular school-wide program aimed at equipping MBA students across all academic programs with the essential skills for managing diversity through a combination of assessments, workshops, and programmatic endeavors throughout their educational journey at Columbia Business School. We partner with the Real Estate Association to contribute to these school-wide dialogues.
Columbia’s 2nd Annual Women in Real Estate Summit, Spring 2024
The Columbia University MSRED Women in Real Estate Development (WIRED) and the Columbia Business School Real Estate Association (REA) joined forces and networks to build and present a now annual Women in Real Estate Summit, in partnership with the Paul Milstein Center. The Summit included a keynote freeside chat and an industry panel who in addition to market observations, spoke of triumphs and challenges in building a successful career in real estate, getting through personal and professional transitions, and using tools and mentorship to leverage and navigate growth opportunities.
Featured Speakers
- MaryAnne Gilmartin, Founder and CEO, MAG Partners (Keynote)
- Lili Luizova Tselkov ’15, Portfolio Manager Americas Real Estate, APG Asset Management
- Emily Von Kohorn ’06, Co-Head of Global Real Estate Practice, Shefeld Haworth
- Susi Yu GSAPP’01, Founding Partner, Bungalow Projects
The Future of Affordable Housing in the US, in partnership with the Richard Paul Richman Center for Business, Law and Public Policy, Spring 2024
A prolonged crisis of affordability in housing contributes to a cost-of-living crisis in many global markets around the world. In the US, even amidst a doubling of mortgage rates, house prices continue to breach record highs, and those who are priced out of purchasing homes contend with record rents. Even if house prices (and shelter in the form of rent) should tumble, the number of factors which have led to this crisis in affordability are unlikely to dissipate any time soon.
By bringing together housing policy experts, economists, investors, and developers, the aim was to put forward practical solutions which could be truly bipartisan, and thus stand the test of political flux and imminent changes within the US government.
Featured Speakers
- Byron Carlock, former US Real Estate Practice Leader, PricewaterhouseCooper
- Alexis Crow (Moderator), Partner and Global Head of PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Geopolitical Investing practice
- Alicia Glen, Founder and Managing Principal of MSquared
- Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh, Earle W. Kazis and Benjamin Schore Professor of Real Estate and Professor of Finance, Columbia Business School
Distinguished Real Estate Speaker Lunch and Learn
Pamela Watkins-West, Managing Director of Real Estate Impact Investing at Nuveen in discussion with Professor Chris Mayer, Fall 2023
In conversation with Professor Mayer, Pamela Watkins-West discussed the formation of Nuveen’s new impact investing sector in May 2023, targeting a goal of $15 billion assets under management by the year 2026. The company’s approach is two-pronged. Citing the fact that approximately 650,000 affordable housing units will become unrestricted by the year 2030, Watkins-West highlighted the company’s strategy of acquiring and preserving affordable homes, while also extending them to residents who are earning 60% or less of the area median income. She highlighted for the groupt hat an additional part of Nuveen’s strategy involves a critical step of adding to housing stock by developing more mixed-income and mixed-use developments, the latter of which will include vital services like education, healthcare, and transportation.
Distinguished Real Estate Speaker Lunch and Learn: Kimberly Brown, Principal Broker, IMPACT Realty Advisors & President of AAREP LA, moderated by Michael Martin ’24, Fall 2023
A student-led “fireside chat” featuring Kimberly Brown, Principal Broker, IMPACT Realty Advisors & President of AAREP LA focused on the topic of investment sales and how they contribute to impact investing. In addition to reviewing a case study on the sale of Marymount Manhattan to UCLA, which she brokered, and as president of AAREP LA, Kimberly offered feedback and assessment of the industry’s current progress in addressing the gap in racial equity, touching on specific action items that both institutions and individuals can be implementing to lessen that gap, and be more gender inclusive. The discussion also focused on the urgency of climate change, and the speaker’s specific experience and interests in the adoption of community solar initiatives within the commercial real estate sector.
Real Estate Association led Lunch & Learn with Christina Rausch, Executive Vice President at New York City Economic Development Corporation, Spring 2024
A student-led “lunch & learn” featuring Christina Rausch, Executive Vice President at New York City Economic Development Corporation presented students a detailed look into real estate as a public service, highlighting the EDC’s role in many of the major real estate transactions and infrastructure projects across the city, exemplifying how greater access leads to greater equity. Christina Rausch co-heads NYCEDC’s Real Estate Transaction Services department, leading public-private partnerships to activate City-owned property and providing transaction advisory services to support inclusive economic growth.