Ellen Smith was featured as part of Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) Atlanta's series exploring its board members' perspectives on the organization and the commercial real estate industry at large. Ellen currently serves as CREW Atlanta's president-elect.
"I am super humbled and excited to be part of this team that is moving forward our strategic plan and planning for our 40th anniversary next year," Ellen said of her current role at CREW Atlanta. "We have been very purposeful and thorough in the manner in which we developed our strategy for going forward – drawing on our membership (past, present and targets), other chapters, and industry standards. An integral part of that strategy is diversity, equity and inclusion and what that really means to us as an organization. It is more than just the demographics of our membership, but also touches on our leadership, our programming and our mission as an organization that breaks barriers. As we prepare to celebrate 40 years of CREW Atlanta, we will use this milestone as an opportunity to look back at how we helped shape the Atlanta skyline, but also to look forward at all the opportunity that exists."
She also described what she sees on the horizon for the commercial real estate industry.
"Across the board in 2020 there were extreme circumstances with the pendulum swinging from everything closing and a fear that offices and retail would die, to the need for more space for social distancing, outdoor spaces, curbside pickup, etc. But the Atlanta market is resilient and is currently ranked as one of the top five markets to relocate, which is a testament to the growing business environment (which I hope continues despite recent politics and a distressing uptick in crime). Just look at the skyline – there are cranes in the air, permits being signed and deals getting done. Atlanta continues to be strong for commercial real estate. As an added benefit, I believe many companies now have more robust remote options and flexible work arrangements, which will allow them to take advantage of a larger talent pool than they may have been able to previously."
You can read her full interview here: Board Q&A with President-Elect Ellen W. Smith.