Clockwise, from top left: Adenah Bayou, Zenobia Fields, Kate Granahan, Bridget Wilcox, Marta Villa, Suzanne Macnow and Karly Iacono will take part in a panel discussion at the inaugural Rush CRE Women’s Networking Event on Wednesday, Nov. 12, at the Basking Ridge Country Club.
By Joshua Burd
A new event next month will gather some of the leading women in New Jersey’s commercial real estate industry for a morning of networking and a wide-ranging panel discussion.
Hosted by Marta Person Villa, a CBRE vice president and longtime broker, the inaugural Rush CRE Women’s Networking Event is slated for Wednesday, Nov. 12, at the Basking Ridge Country Club. The program kicks off at 8:30 AM with a networking breakfast, followed by a panel on trends in industrial, office, multifamily, capital markets and net lease, retail, lending and municipal economic development, with a roster of high-profile speakers including:
- Adenah Bayou of Adenah Bayou & Cos.
- Zenobia Fields of the City of Plainfield
- Kate Granahan of CBRE
- Karly Iacono of CBRE
- Suzanne Macnow of CBRE
- Bridget Wilcox of G.S. Wilcox & Co.
- Marta Villa of CBRE
The event, at 185 Madisonville Road in the Basking Ridge section of Bernards, is an expansion of Villa’s annual networking breakfast and will offer an in-person opportunity for women in commercial real estate to network, hear from industry experts, learn, grow and make deals, she said. The new format and free admission are possible with the support of additional sponsors, including CBRE, JLL, RIPCO Real Estate, RJ Brunelli & Co. Inc., Acrisure, Cuhache Peterson Architects, Social Jack Media and Appliance Palace.
The event will also have an hour of what CBRE described as rapid-fire networking, which will be led by table moderators, after the panel discussion.
“Amazing things can happen in a room filled with industry professionals,” Villa said. “The impetus for this event came from sorority rush, harnessing the creativity, organization and presentation skills of the big universities’ Greek organizations. We want to emulate that and make this event memorable and fun for attendees, with the goal of making a deal or gathering a piece of information to help advance a future transaction. After all, commercial real estate is still a relationship business.”
For additional information, contact Villa at [email protected].
