39 min
Digital Transformation & Diversification: How Real Estate Is Recalibrating After The Pandemic The Propcast
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- Technology
Summary: On the 2nd Episode of Season 9, Louisa is joined by Laura Smith, Managing Director at Berkadia and Neda Fields, Director of Product Management at Berkadia to chat about digital transformation within real estate. They discussed how Berkadia went about their own transformation for internal product development and the use of external technologies. They also touched on how to attract a diverse workforce; a key issue during the Great Rehiring that’s sweeping the post-pandemic market. During the global Covid outbreak, while everyone else was downsizing, Berkadia’s adoption of industry-leading technologies helped them to double their workforce.
Resources:
LMRE Global Recruitment and Search Consultancy LMRE YouTube Interviews redIQ
Companies Mentioned:
Dwight Capital (Love Funding) Arbinger Institute Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Jefferies Financial Group redIQ
Shout Outs:
Eric Flohr
Key Insights From This Episode:
During the pandemic while everyone else was downsizing, we were recalibrating and employee staff sizes had almost doubled. - Laura Job candidates are asking about the culture, what does the business contribute to the community, are there different programs, different intentions, what is the whole progression and what do they offer? - Louisa It is important to have different backgrounds to contribute to innovations. - Neda Diversity is not just about gender. - Neda Bring your YOU to work. Be yourself, and have that freedom to express yourself as yourself so that you feel comfortable sharing your ideas and contributing to the innovation. - Neda Give people flexibility, especially if we've learned nothing else from COVID, we all have to learn to embrace change and be flexible with whatever comes our way. - Laura Business is not usual, there's no more normal. Noone knows what the new normal is. - Laura The real estate industry has been an industry that has been reluctant to technology innovation. - Neda
Keywords: Technology, PropTech, Women, Data, Digital Transformation
About Our Guests:
Neda Fields
Neda Fields leads cross-functional efforts and teams in the development of data insight and visualisation tools for real estate market research. Berkadia's Data and Analytics tools synthesise property fundamentals, demographics and market intelligence to optimise the evaluation of real estate investments. Neda was selected as one of Real Estate Forum's CRE Tech Influencers in 2021.
Neda began her career with KPMG in the Information Risk Management practice where she advised numerous clients on their Information Technology internal control frameworks. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Information Systems from Missouri State University.
Laura Smith
As Managing Director, Laura Smith is responsible for loan origination of market-rate multifamily, affordable and healthcare properties nationwide. Over the course of her career, she has underwritten approximately $6 billion in FHA, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and Wall street conduit transactions. She has originated and closed more than 120 transactions totaling nearly $1 billion.
Laura holds a bachelor's degree in political science from West Chester University and in German from the University of Marburg, Germany. In 1992, she received her Masters of Business Administration from American University with a concentration in real estate finance.
Berkadia
Berkadia, a joint venture of Berkshire Hathaway and Jefferies Financial Group, is a leader in the commercial real estate industry, offering a robust suite of services to our multifamily and commercial property clients. Powered by deep relationships and industry-changing technology, our people sell, finance, and service commercial real estate, providing support for the entire life cycle of our clients’ assets. Our unique ownership structure allows us to put our clients’ interests first and create a marketplace that delivers a superior experience
About Our Ho
Summary: On the 2nd Episode of Season 9, Louisa is joined by Laura Smith, Managing Director at Berkadia and Neda Fields, Director of Product Management at Berkadia to chat about digital transformation within real estate. They discussed how Berkadia went about their own transformation for internal product development and the use of external technologies. They also touched on how to attract a diverse workforce; a key issue during the Great Rehiring that’s sweeping the post-pandemic market. During the global Covid outbreak, while everyone else was downsizing, Berkadia’s adoption of industry-leading technologies helped them to double their workforce.
Resources:
LMRE Global Recruitment and Search Consultancy LMRE YouTube Interviews redIQ
Companies Mentioned:
Dwight Capital (Love Funding) Arbinger Institute Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Jefferies Financial Group redIQ
Shout Outs:
Eric Flohr
Key Insights From This Episode:
During the pandemic while everyone else was downsizing, we were recalibrating and employee staff sizes had almost doubled. - Laura Job candidates are asking about the culture, what does the business contribute to the community, are there different programs, different intentions, what is the whole progression and what do they offer? - Louisa It is important to have different backgrounds to contribute to innovations. - Neda Diversity is not just about gender. - Neda Bring your YOU to work. Be yourself, and have that freedom to express yourself as yourself so that you feel comfortable sharing your ideas and contributing to the innovation. - Neda Give people flexibility, especially if we've learned nothing else from COVID, we all have to learn to embrace change and be flexible with whatever comes our way. - Laura Business is not usual, there's no more normal. Noone knows what the new normal is. - Laura The real estate industry has been an industry that has been reluctant to technology innovation. - Neda
Keywords: Technology, PropTech, Women, Data, Digital Transformation
About Our Guests:
Neda Fields
Neda Fields leads cross-functional efforts and teams in the development of data insight and visualisation tools for real estate market research. Berkadia's Data and Analytics tools synthesise property fundamentals, demographics and market intelligence to optimise the evaluation of real estate investments. Neda was selected as one of Real Estate Forum's CRE Tech Influencers in 2021.
Neda began her career with KPMG in the Information Risk Management practice where she advised numerous clients on their Information Technology internal control frameworks. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Information Systems from Missouri State University.
Laura Smith
As Managing Director, Laura Smith is responsible for loan origination of market-rate multifamily, affordable and healthcare properties nationwide. Over the course of her career, she has underwritten approximately $6 billion in FHA, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae and Wall street conduit transactions. She has originated and closed more than 120 transactions totaling nearly $1 billion.
Laura holds a bachelor's degree in political science from West Chester University and in German from the University of Marburg, Germany. In 1992, she received her Masters of Business Administration from American University with a concentration in real estate finance.
Berkadia
Berkadia, a joint venture of Berkshire Hathaway and Jefferies Financial Group, is a leader in the commercial real estate industry, offering a robust suite of services to our multifamily and commercial property clients. Powered by deep relationships and industry-changing technology, our people sell, finance, and service commercial real estate, providing support for the entire life cycle of our clients’ assets. Our unique ownership structure allows us to put our clients’ interests first and create a marketplace that delivers a superior experience
About Our Ho
39 min