YLG Learns from the Best with Guest Speaker Jo Ann Chitty

By Brett Merrill & Marshall Willis

On the morning of Wednesday, March 19th, ULI Atlanta’s Young Leaders Group hosted Jo Ann Chitty, Senior Vice President at Selig Enterprises, for the first Learn from the Best Series event of 2013. The first female guest in several years, Jo Ann opened by speaking of the challenges she faced in a male-dominated field and the value of engaging the community in development projects. Starting her career in real estate as a Realtor in Jacksonville, Florida, she progressed to work on the management and disposition of a portfolio of trucking terminal properties. Eventually, she helped start the UGA Real Estate Foundation by becoming the founding director before her current role at Selig. Joining her was Scott Selig, Vice President of Acquisitions & Development at Selig Enterprises, who echoed the importance of networking and community involvement by describing his experiences as both a member and chairperson of various civic and neighborhood committees.

Some of the ideas and lessons learned which Jo Ann and Scott shared with the group include:

• Become involved in community service that you believe in. Some of the most important business opportunities may be cultivated when you give back to the community but don’t do it just to check the box on your resume.

• Networking is vital to success. It’s important to network both within and outside of the real estate profession as you never know where the next opportunity may come from.

• Your reputation is either your greatest asset or impediment. People remember the greatest things you’ve done and the trust you’ve built as much as they remember your worst failures. It can all be undone if you act greedy just one time.

• Engaging with community members can have a direct monetary benefit. Some of the most important information you can learn about a project may come from a chat in someone’s living room.

Brett Merrill is a Senior Analyst with Jamestown.  Marshall Willis is a Transportation Planner with the Atlanta Regional Commission. Both are members of the Young Leaders Group. 

Learn from the Best with Tom Ventulett

by Christina Byrnes

ULI Atlanta’s YLG hosted a Learn from the Best session with Mr. Tom Ventulett of tvsdesign (Thompson, Ventulett, Stainback & Associates) on Wednesday, August 29.  With a room full of sleepy-eyed young professionals, Mr. Ventulett opened the young leaders’ eyes with lessons learned from his experiences as a practicing architect and entrepreneur.  tvsdesign was founded 45 years ago in Atlanta and has grown to become a global practice in multiple market segments.  Even today after formally retiring, Mr. Ventulett still comes to work because he loves the art of positively affecting change in the community.  His words to us:

Work together to make this a beautiful city and find the answer to make our urban core come back alive

• Advice to young professional: “The value of the internship is to find your strengths and learn to compliment others”
• Nature inside a building through building materials appeals to the inner self
• Give credit to your colleagues
• If someone has a better idea, seize it. Doing what makes the project look good, makes everyone look good
• You always have to be straight and honest
• Trust your team

Learn from the Best with Lance Patterson

by Scott Barr

On the morning of October 10th, 2012, ULI Atlanta’s Young Leaders Group and Executive Director Jeff DuFresne were fortunate to meet with Lance Patterson for the fourth and final Learn from the Best series event of 2012.  Lance, who founded Patterson Real Estate Advisory Group in 2010, hosted 20 young leaders at his office and took us through the steps of his career from banking in Dallas and St. Louis to First Fidelity and Barry Real Estate in Atlanta in additional to ULI Atlanta Chairman, and now founding and growing his own firm.

 A few of the ideas and lessons learned that he shared with the group include:

• Trust is paramount.  Don’t hide the issues with your projects or people will see right through you.  Leading with the bad parts can encourage trust and build relationships.
• It is best to be humble and show focus for your client rather than tooting your own horn. It is more effective when others sing your praises and toot your horn.
• Seek out mentors in or outside your company you can talk to, observe, and learn from.
• Leadership is about serving people, side by side, not leaving them all the hard work and going golfing.
• When times are good and everyone is making money, you’re still making mistakes but they are not as noticed.  Have to maintain focus in the good times.
• Deals do not move fast.  They always take months if not years.  And they don’t turn out how you think they will or should.
• If you are serious about starting your own firm, go all in. Get office space, spend some money, and show potential clients you are serious.
• You have to find time to plan ahead for your firm if you want to be the best.

Thank you to Lance Patterson as well as all of the attendees for a successful and educational event.

They Didn’t Just Invent the Chicken Sandwich

By Kristin Olson

The Young Leaders Group headed south to Chick-fil-A Headquarters for its most recent Learn from the Best series event.  Chick-fil-A was a gracious host providing the event space, a full, catered Chick-fil-A breakfast (I was pretty happy about the chicken biscuits), one of Truett Cathy’s books and a stuffed cow, as well as the wonderful panelists.

The panelists’ presentation started with two videos, one that featured the must-be-heard-for-any-CFA-fanatic, Tim Hawkins’ Chick-fil-A song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OwZGmYV-1I).  Both were great representations of Chick-fil-A’s corporate culture and purpose, “To have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A.”  (And, I may or may not have shed a tear or two.)

Our panelists were Getra Thomason, Tom Nolan, and Don Crocker.  They each gave us insight into their backgrounds and how they came to be at Chick-fil-A.  We then discussed everything from site selection and permitting to Chick-fil-A’s future growth.  We learned that the company actually ventured into the South African market several years back, and while the venture was not a success, it provided a great platform and learning experience as the company considers future growth in non-domestic markets.  First up for CFA international expansion is to conquer North American continent by pursuing opportunities in Canada and Mexico.  But, they still have several US markets to enter, and will be opening stores in Washington and Minnesota this year.

Other interesting Chick-fil-A tibits learned at the event included:

• the company will be debt free in 2012;
• at 90 years young, Mr. Cathy still serves as CEO and goes to work almost every day;
• the downtown Chicago restaurant, which opened in 2011, had the largest volume lunch hour in the history of the company, and
• Chick-fil-A is expanding their environmental stewardship initiative, building its first LEED certified restaurant in 2011, and it was recently announced that a restaurant in Fort Worth, Texas received LEED Gold certification.

When asked about his experience planning the event, John Rhodes had the following to say, “The opportunity to plan the ULI LFTB event at Chick-fil-A headquarters was a great experience.  The event really focused on Chick-fil-A’s mission and their dedication to the fact that every one of their customers has a story and Chick-fil-A sees it as a pleasure to serve each and every individual that comes through their doors.  A motivation that more companies would do well to emulate.”  Thank you so much to the fine folks at Chick-fil-A for extending such a warm welcome to our Young Leaders.

Make you don’t miss out on our next event – Learn from the Best with Wes Hudson of the Reznick Group.  (March 27, 2012.  Go to www.uliatlanta.org to register)

A special thank you to John Rhodes, PE with Foresite Group (http://www.foresitegroupinc.com),  for organizing this event.  John has been a member of ULI since 2007 and active with the Young Leaders Group since 2008.  He is a currently pursuing his City Planning degree at Georgia Tech while working as a project manager for Foresite Group.  Foresite Group is a full-service site design and planning firm with in-house civil engineers, transportation engineers, and landscape architects.

YLG: Learn from the Best – Jim Meyer

By Taylor Smith

Our Learn from the Best events keep getting better.  Jim Meyer, Managing Director and Atlanta Regional Head of Tishman Speyer, came to speak to us on June 16th.  Jim has over 25 years of development experience in Atlanta and has developed many notable projects in the city, including: Two Alliance Center, One Alliance Center, One Atlantic Center, Centergy Plaza, 171 17th St, Equifax HQ building, the Atlanta Federal Center (the old Rich’s department store) and even a jail!  He’s gone from a public company to starting his own small shop and back to a large, private, international firm.  Every stop influenced his career and taught him valuable lessons.  Jim regaled us with stories from many of his projects and left us with a few lessons learned:

1. When you’re young “work your butt off”
2.  Seek out and heed good counsel
3. Embrace your chance when it comes.  Every success takes a little luck, but you have to be ready for it (Jim was just 29 at Prentiss Properties when he took over project management for One Atlantic Center to fill a recent vacancy)
4.  Take time to build experience and networks
5.  Don’t fear taking a well-calculated risk (like starting your own company).  You’ll be surprised by how many people will support you

Participation from the attendees was great and made the meeting.  It was one of our most interactive LFTB events to date.  Jim even surprised a good many of us by throwing around a few questions of his own.  If you want the chance to sit around the table (literally) with 20 colleagues and chat with some of the city’s commercial real estate leaders, I encourage you to come out next time.  We want to thank Jim for sharing his time and experiences with us, but most of all for opening up to the group and making such a great event.

Photos by Duane Stork Photography

 

YLG: LEARN FROM THE BEST: ROMEO de LEON

Memorial Day, the unofficial kick-off for summer, is right around the corner. Just like back in our school days, we would like to provide you with a summer reading list courtesy of Romeo deLeon of Terracon Consulting.

Romeo spoke as part of the exclusive Learn From The Best Series hosted by the Young Leaders Group on Wednesday, May 11th.  Romeo is a Professional Engineer in the geotechnical discipline who began his career as a project engineer and has progressed to one of the company’s most valued business development professionals.

Romeo shared lessons about expanding your network, client keeping, and building long term relationships. One of the rules he lives by is the 80/20 rule: eighty percent of your work should come from existing clients while twenty percent of your work should come from new clients.

Throughout the talk Romeo recommended reading the following books to the attendees (aka YOUR summer reading list):

• The Heart and Art of Netweaving – Robert S. Littell.
• The I HATE Selling Book – Allan S. Boress.
• The Trusted Advisor – Ford Harding.
• Creating Rainmakers – Ford Harding.
• Team Players and Teamwork – Glenn Parker

The YLG would like to thank Romeo for sharing his time + expertise with the ULI YLG.

The next event in the Learn From The Best Series is currently slated for June, 15th, 2011.  We look forward to seeing you there!