Women in CRE: Amy Price
BGO President Amy Price got hooked on commercial real estate while working in the financial services industry, specifically the principal investing side of the business.
“In the early 1990s, the real estate fund business was just beginning on Wall Street, so I jumped at the opportunity to be part of a team making some of those early investments,” said the San Francisco-based executive.
At BGO, previously known as BentallGreenOak, Price oversees its U.S. business and works closely with the capital raising team. She’s a member of the global executive team, management committee and the U.S. investment committees. She also leads BGO’s equity, diversity and inclusion initiatives globally and chairs the firm’s EDI leadership council. BGO, which serves more than 750 institutional clients in 27 offices around the world, has global assets under management of about $82 million and $36.7 billion in U.S. AUM.
Price joined the firm, then Bentall Kennedy US, in 2012, serving as president and CIO.
In December 2018, Bentall Kennedy and GreenOak Real Estate announced the firms would be merging and forming a global real estate platform, BentallGreenOak. She was managing partner and co-head of U.S. at BGO for nearly two years before being named president in 2021.
Price was previously a managing director and head of real estate investing for the western U.S. at Morgan Stanley. A member of the investment committee, she built the firm’s real estate investment management business in San Francisco. Price also worked in Morgan Stanley’s New York and Hong Kong offices.
Price holds an MBA with distinction from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and graduated magna cum laude from Colgate University.
As she looks back over her career, Price says two things stand out.
“First, I have had the opportunity to learn from some really great people who invested in me and helped unlock opportunities for me,” she recalled. “Second, I took advantage of those opportunities and pushed myself outside of my comfort zone to take on something I didn’t always feel fully prepared to do.”
Having it all
One of the greatest challenges, Price notes, was balancing a demanding career with a young family at home.
“I adopted a year-by-year attitude and stayed focused on the present,” she said. “It was uncomfortable to not be able to see too far ahead, but I got through it and the future came back into focus.”
The best parts of her job are working closely with colleagues, spending time with investors and connecting with industry peers.
“CRE is a dynamic industry so there’s always something to learn with the exchange of ideas,” Price notes.
She advises others to focus on building relationships and surrounding themselves with people they can learn from and who will help open doors for them. And when a door opens, charge through it!”
Read the September 2024 issue of CPE.
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