Q & A with Roberta Bastow the Commercial & Industrial Real Estate Brokers, Inc.

Name: Roberta Bastow Title: Vice President and Relationship Manager Company/firm: First Niagara Bank Years with company/firm: 3 Years in field: 25 Years in real estate industry: 8 Address: 555 Patroon Creek Boulevard, Albany, NY 12206 Telephone: (518) 591-4177 Email: [email protected] URL: www.fnfg.com Real estate organizations/affiliations: CIREB During the last 10 years of your career, which professional accomplishment, honor or achievement has meant the most to you and why? Establishing a banking relationship with a downstate minority, woman owned steel fabrication business when they consolidated operations and purchased a building in the Capital District. We provided financing for the purchase of a new manufacturing plant on 20 acres of land, allowing the company room to expand. Since then we've financed the purchase of equipment and provided a large line of credit to support the collection of receivables from the company's NYC based transportation and higher education clients. This relationship means a lot to me since the company could have stayed with their NYC money center bank, but chose to partner with us. It has been and continues to be a strong, mutual gratifying relationship between the bank, client and their commercial realtor who referred us the deal. How do you contribute to your company and / or the industry? By working closely with commercial realtors and their clients, listening to what the need is and putting together an attractive financial package to meet those needs, move the real estate, help the company, help the realtor, help the bank. What advice would you give to women just starting out in commercial real estate? Join a professional industry group such as CIREB and GCAR, network, and pay it forward. How do you manage the work/life balance? Not as well as I'd like. Yoga, spin and sun help. Who or what has been the strongest influence on your career and why? A former boss when I was at Fleet Bank. He knew I was flexible, adaptable and loyal. Each time the bank merged with another bank (once if not twice a year during the 7 years I was in my position) I was asked to take on a new sales management assignment with greater territory and responsibility. It was at work hard, play hard time and I picked up many skills that paved the ground for me as an entrepreneur and relationship manger. How are you using social media to promote yourself and/or your firm? I'm an avid user of Linked In. I use it for introductions to prospects and helping others connect. Where would you like to be 10 years from today? Biking somewhere in Europe