President's message: experts to discuss '08 forecast at 2/5 luncheon

The Association of Real Estate Women will present a luncheon and program on Tuesday, February 5th at Club 101, 101 Park Ave. at 40th St., featuring two leading real estate economic and risk management experts. Entitled "Opportunities in a Changing Market: A 2008 Economic Forecast," the timely topic will explore the effects of the subprime mortgage debacle and capital markets crisis, stock market volatility, and the devaluation of residential housing. Guest speakers will be Dr. Sam Chandan, PhD, Reis's chief economist and senior vice president for Research; and Jayne Day, senior vice president, chief risk officer, GE Real Estate. Dr. Chandan and the team of Reis economists are responsible for the firm's market forecasting, valuation, risk and analytical product development, economic, regulatory, credit and capital markets research and Reis's CMBS and real estate portfolio analytics services. A leading authority on the economics of real estate markets, Dr. Chandan is a regular speaker at major industry events, meetings and conferences and a contributing author to the some of the industry's preeminent publications including The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Bloomberg, CNBC, MSNBC, NBC News, BusinessWeek, Forbes and U.S. News and World Report. He holds a PhD in Applied Economics from the Wharton School. Jayne Day has transformed risk management from a single step at the end of the investment process into a best-in-class discipline that has become a competitive advantage for which GE is well known. She believes this expertise is increasingly valuable as the real estate business expands into emerging markets with different legal systems, currency regulations and property rights concepts. Day assumed her current position in 1993 and has grown the risk management function at GE Real Estate to 300 professionals in 23 locations across the globe. Today she is responsible for managing the global risk exposure of the firm's transactions as well as its approximately $72 billion real estate portfolio. The luncheon begins as 11:30 a.m. with an hour of networking, followed by the luncheon and program. There is no charge for AREW members. Cost for non-members is $110. Registration: www.arew.org. Frances Ann Delgorio is 2008 president of AREW, N.Y., N.Y.