More than 75% of real estate executives are white men. Here’s how to diversify.

From Fast Company:

Commercial real estate has a diversity problem. The people who buy, sell, and manage commercial real estate in the United States are overwhelmingly white and male, with women making up only about a third of the workforce and only 2% of C-level positions held by Black men. A new effort is aimed at changing that—and changing the kinds of investments the industry makes.

“The real estate industry is one of many industries in America that in the past year has come to the realization that it’s not as diverse nor necessarily as inclusive as the concept of the melting pot many of us learned about in school,” says Ken McIntyre, CEO of the Real Estate Executive Council, a trade association for commercial real estate professionals of color. “Many organizations have taken on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives over the past several years, and the net effect has been, let’s just say, less than optimal.”

To help those initiatives have a bigger impact, REEC has launched a new Diversity Partner Program, partnering with development companies, real estate groups, and other trade associations to set clear goals and guidelines for increasing diversity within their own ranks and for supporting vendor and supplier firms owned by people of color. The program’s first partners include global real estate firms such as Ferguson Partners and Nuveen, as well as the 19,000-member commercial real estate development association NAIOP.

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