From the Bronx to the Boardroom: Lessons from a Life in Commercial Real Estate

Summary

Stephen B. Siegel, chairman of global brokerage for CBRE, the world’s largest real estate firm, describes his audacious journey from his childhood in the Bronx through six decades in the business, negotiating award-winning, multi-million-dollar transactions for renowned clients in developments that transformed New York City and finding success through creativity, vision, hard work, a genuine love of people, and a commitment to giving back.

Mr. Siegel joined Cushman & Wakefield at age seventeen and, two decades later, was named President and CEO. After a brief foray into development, he became chairman and CEO of Insignia/ESG, leading the firm’s national and global expansion before its acquisition by CBRE. In a hyper-competitive industry, Mr. Siegel is beloved for his larger-than-life personality, generous humanity, dry wit, and legendary practical jokes. He helped transform the industry from a decentralized landscape of scrappy dealmakers to a global business helping C-suite leaders navigate an increasingly complex world.

Mr. Siegel has worked on transformative developments in New York City, from Times Square to the World Trade Center to Hudson Yards, for clients such as Gucci, L’Oréal, Estée Lauder, Apollo, Hudson Bay, Fried Frank, and the State of New York. He has represented global investors and property owners such as Related, Vornado, Silverstein Properties, and Donald Trump. A self-proclaimed “deal junkie,” Mr. Siegel partnered in a group that completed approximately $2 billion in co-investments in a wide range of US real estate portfolios, and invested in restaurants and a minor league baseball team.

A father of four and grandfather of six, Mr. Siegel has served on a dozen boards, quietly raising millions for charity with his wife Wendy. They added more than 105,000 donors to the registry of The Gift of Life, a nonprofit that matches patients with donors who provide life-saving blood stem cells and bone marrow, resulting in thousands of matches and hundreds of lifesaving transplants.