Panel: Women Leading in Commercial Real Estate

Women represent a growing share of real estate professionals — but senior investment roles, fund leadership, and principal positions still skew heavily male. This panel doesn't rehash the statistics. It goes straight to the strategies that are actually working for women who have built real authority in this industry.

Maria Rodriguez (CEO, PropInvest Capital — $400M fund) and Priya Nair (General Partner, PropTech Ventures — 40+ portfolio companies) join senior CRE professionals to share what the path actually looked like: the sponsors who made the difference (not just mentors), the moments where they chose to stay in rooms that weren't built for them, and the specific tactics they used to get taken seriously when the default assumption worked against them.

Topics include: building credibility in deal rooms; how to cultivate sponsorship vs. mentorship; negotiating carry and equity in GP structures; what institutional LP diversity requirements actually mean for emerging managers; building teams that retain women as they advance; and what male allies in this industry should actually be doing — specific, actionable behaviors, not performance.

This session is for women at every stage of their CRE career, and for the men who want to be genuine allies. Audience Q&A runs the final 20 minutes. Limited to 40 attendees. 1.0 CE credit.