New York, NY The Greater New York Chapter of the Institute of Real Estate Management (IREM) unveiled their 2016 award winners. Awards will be presented at the organization’s annual dinner an awards on Thursday, January 14^th at 230 Fifth Ave. Event sponsors are CSI-Construction & Security Installations; Durnan Group Managers & MacInnis, Ward & Associates. The IREM Real Estate Person of the Year is Robert Knakal. Knakal is chairman of New York investment sales at Cushman & Wakefield. Previously, he was chairman and founding partner of Massey Knakal Realty Services. He graduated from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor of science degree in economics on 1984 and started his real estate career at CB Richard Ellis. There he met Paul Massey and in 1988 the both left CBRE to form Massey Knakal. To date, Knakal has been responsible for the sale of more that 1,700 buildings with an excess market value of $12.5 billion. In January 2015, Cushman & Wakefield acquired Massey Knakal. At the age of 36, Knakal was named to Crain’s New York Business’ Top Forty Under Forty/New York Rising Stars list for his outstanding achievement in the real estate community. He is also a two-time winner of the Real Estate Board of New York’s Robert T. Lawrence Award in the “Most Ingenious Deal of the Year” contest. Knakal writes a weekly column about the NYC real estate market called Concrete Thoughts for “The Commercial Observer.” His civic involvements include his presidency of the Prescott Foundation for Children and Youth, which gives educational grants to disadvantaged children. He also sits on the boards of several NYC charitable agencies. Other award winners include Certified Property Manager of the Year Diana Bosnjak, CPM, vice president of RY Management; Accredited Management Organization of the Year Cushman & Wakefield; and Industry Partner of the Year Andrew Rosenwach of Rosenwach Tank. To reserve a spot at the annual awards dinner, please visit iremnyc.org or call (212) 944-9449.