This is a special episode of Leading Voices in Real Estate featuring conversations with six Black real estate leaders, each of whom speaks with Matt about their personal experiences and their thoughts on how our industry can address inequalities and systemic racism in our companies, our work in the built environment, and in the real estate sector broadly.

Featured Guests

Tammy K. Jones, Co-Founder & CEO | Basis Investment Group

Since 2009, Tammy has served as both Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Basis Investment Group, a multi-strategy commercial real estate investment platform she founded with JEMB Realty Corporation that acquires and originates a variety of senior and subordinated loans, preferred equity and joint venture equity positions on behalf of its investors. Under her leadership, Basis has succeeded in closing nearly $2.7 billion in commercial real estate debt and structured equity-related investments across the United States. Tammy has more than 24 years of experience in the commercial real estate industry, investing and lending on CRE assets her entire career on behalf of large pension funds and institutional investors including Equitable Real Estate, GMACCM, and CWCapital.

Daryl Carter, Chairman & CEO | Avanath Capital Management

Daryl is the Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Avanath Capital Management, a California-based investment firm that acquires, renovates, and operates apartment properties, with an emphasis on affordable and workforce communities. He directs the overall strategy and operations of the Company. Since its formation in 2008, Avanath has acquired $2.5 billion of properties in 13 states in the U.S., comprising 10,000 apartment units.

Tyrone Roderick Williams, Deputy Executive Director | Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency

Tyrone is the Deputy Executive Director at the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency. His development activities have been at the forefront of affordable housing and comprehensive neighborhood transformation efforts in Boston, Houston, Atlanta and Sacramento. His experience includes leading developments in the for-profit, nonprofit, philanthropic and government sectors. He is an industry leader in affordable housing finance, community development, organizational management, and cross-sector collaborations. He directs the affordable housing, community development and project financing activities for the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, Sacramento Housing Authority, Sacramento County Housing authority, the City of Sacramento and Sacramento County.

Robin Hughes, President & CEO | Abode Communities

Robin Hughes is President and Chief Executive Officer of Abode Communities, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit architect, developer, manager and operator of service-enhanced affordable housing. She has been actively involved in affordable housing and community development for over 30 years and in her 23 years as leader of Abode Communities, Hughes has transformed the organization into an Affordable Housing Finance Top 50 Developer nationwide and the premier provider of environmentally sustainable affordable housing in California.

Bill Whitlow, Partner | Terra Search Partners

Bill pairs his twenty-five-year tenure in commercial real estate with the past twelve years he’s worked as Partner at Terra Search Partners, a national executive search firm focused exclusively on the real estate industry. He provides both Terra and his clients with deep industry insights and context across a broad spectrum of senior and executive-level real estate functions including senior-level finance and capital markets, organizational structure and strategy, asset and property management, acquisitions, development and leasing roles.

Cedric Bobo, Co-Founder & CEO | Project Destined

Cedric Bobo is the Co-Founder and CEO of Project Destined, a social impact vehicle that trains urban youth and military veterans to be owners and stakeholders in the communities in which they live, work and play. Prior to founding Project Destined, Cedric spent over 20 years as an investor and investment banker including over 10 years at the The Carlyle Group where he committed over $2 Billion of equity capital. In 2015, Cedric was named to the“10 Top Powerful Black People on Wall Street You Should Know.”

Resources

Articles

Beyond “Best Efforts”: Why Commercial Real Estate Needs to Catch Up on Diversity (Featured in UrbanLand by Kirk Sikes, Evan Mitchell, and Sommer Heyman)

Catalyst’s Action Plan (By Jordan Moss, Founder of Catalyst Housing Group)

Podcast

Why Ta-Nehisi Coates is Hopeful (Featured in Vox by Ezra Klein)

Organizations

The Real Estate Executive Council

The Toigo Foundation

Videos

Communities in Crisis and a Call to Action: A Conversation with Doug Bibby and Daryl Carter (National Multifamily Housing Council)

I Am Not Your Negro (2016 Documentary Directed By Raoul Peck)

Book

The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America (By Richard Rothstein)

Leading Voices in Real Estate has tried to present conversations with leaders in the real estate world from a diverse set of backgrounds, with different perspectives, and from all sectors of the industry. We will be working to bring more leaders of color into the conversation and will be thinking, with all of our guests, how our industry can better address inequities internally within our companies and in the work that we do.