For more than 30 years, AFIRE has been the essential thought leadership forum for international investors focused on the US property markets. Three decades of relevance is a significant and laudable achievement for any organization, but maturation comes with challenges as well. The inertia of old habits, for one thing; and the existential discomfort of change, for another. Age is not a license to blindly repeat old formulas, nor is it an excuse to reject all that has worked in the past.
Whether we like it or not, the world (and our industry) is changing. The certainty of old habits will always eventually reveal itself to be an illusion, and as many of us have learned the hard way, that revelation often occurs after damage has been done.
In the last 30 years, the nature of thought leadership itself has also changed. At one time, only certain kinds of experts were allowed to introduce perspectives or ideas to the general discourse. But as our lives have become more integrated with our professions, and media (especially digital media) has become decentralized and open to all, thought leadership is now a shared responsibility. As Microsoft’s former director of business insights Daniel Rasmus puts it, “Thought leadership should be an entry point to a relationship.”
But how new is shared thought leadership, really? Before the 20th Century, when passive acceptance of “experts’” ideas were the rule, thought leadership was more of a group activity. There’s no coincidence that Plato’s ideas come to us in the form of dialogues rather than eloquent lectures. True understanding is revealed through relationships.
Shared thought leadership, therefore, is essential to AFIRE’s mission: to help us all become Better Investors, Better Leaders, and Better Global Citizens.
We are excited for our second issue of Summit, a key AFIRE thought leadership forum. The ideas included here, from insightful member and guest contributors, range from the technical to the aspirational. Together they reveal a narrative of change – that the only way we can continue to lead and elevate the principles of our fiduciary responsibilities is to overcome the challenges of inertia and together define the future of our industry.
Gunnar Branson
CEO
gbranson@afire.org
+1 202 312 1401
Benjamin van Loon
Communications Director
bvanloon@afire.org
+1 202 312 1405
Karen is the head of acquisitions for Allianz Real Estate, and has worked to invest in more than $25 billion of unlisted institutional real estate over the past 20 years. The first half of her career was oriented toward closed-end value-add and opportunistic fund investments in office, retail and multi-family assets across continental Europe. Since 2011, Karen has primarily focused on core and core-plus commercial investments in US gateway markets.
