What award/recognition is most meaningful to you and why? By Torres

Name: Marjorie Torres Title: Founder and Chief Executive Officer Company/firm: Concrete Stories Years with company/firm: 10 Years in field: 10 Years in real estate industry: 10 Address: 90 Broad Street, Suite 1902 New York, NY 10280 Telephone: 212-994-6300 Email: clientservices ConcreteStories.com URL: www.ConcreteStories.com Responsibilities include: Managing a commercial real estate firm that provides a comprehensive suite of Fortune 100 level real estate services: strategic advice, brokerage and development support to nonprofits and midsize firms. Real estate organizations / affiliations: REBNY, NYC WIRE, New America Alliance, The Marathon Club Professionally, where were you ten years ago and where are you now? I had just left the investment banking world and was looking for an opportunity to start a firm that offered unique services to a niche group. Given my engineering and finance background, I found commercial real estate interesting and the lack of our level of services in this particular niche market was appealing. What single event professional or personal has most significantly impacted your career? To have successfully assembled, structured, and developed the first 100,000 s/f nonprofit owned green building in New York City within a 1 million s/f development. What was the best decision that you made in the last year? To invest time and effort in expanding our global outreach. What award or recognition has been the most meaningful to you and why? I have been fortunate with two: 1) To be recognized as part of the Top 40 under 40 at Columbia University because this was a very nice gesture to be included in a group of my peers on a global basis from different fields. 2) To be included as an author in Donald Trumps book, The Best Real Estate Advice I Ever Received. Trump is known for assembling the best experiences from the brightest professionals and it was auspicious that I was one of the 100 top experts to share our strategies in the book. How do you stay ahead of the curve? Reading extensively, networking with elders in the industry, and watching trends. How has the need to create a more sustainable environment influenced the way you do business? Before the green wave hit NYC and the U.S. for that matter, we were thinking green real estate. Now I advice my clients that it should be more of a defensive move, being green will become part of most building codes in metropolitan cities. Seven years ago we assembled, structured, and developed the first green, LEED certified building in New York City in the heart of the Financial District. What obstacles have you overcome to get where you are today? Obstacles have been many and since I tried to assimilate them as opportunities to learn and grow. These obstacles have made me a stronger professional and more acute detector on when a deal process may need a push on one of the parties in the negotiation. What advice would you give to a woman just starting a career in your field? To be very confident in her abilities, read and understand trends as much as you can, and try to get a champion in your field that can mentor and challenge your thinking process.