The NAREIT 2017 SFO Workshop and the NAREIT 2017 HR Forum were held from Sept. 18-19 at the Fairmont Copley Plaza in Boston. The SFO Workshop presented a focused educational program for REIT officers who manage accounting, financial reporting, capital markets and investor relations.
At the HR Forum, the two-day program focused on HR issues within REITs and the general commercial real estate industry, with sessions on the human capital side of REIT mergers and acquisitions; real estate cycles and the risks and opportunities for REITs; the most pressing commercial real estate compensation issues today; and driving better REIT performance through diversity and inclusion. The HR Forum programming included roundtable discussions about REIT performance management, compensation systems and NAREIT’s Dividends Through Diversity Initiative. Peter Cappelli, director of The Wharton School's Center for Human Resources, spoke on the challenges facing HR, psychological insights into personal growth and development, and blending multi-generations at work. The Gold sponsor was FPL Advisory Group and the Silver Sponsor was Terra Search Partners.
Here are some of the highlights from the SFO Workshop.
Sept. 18, 2017 (left to right): Steve Wechsler, NAREIT President and CEO; Norm Brownstein, Co-founder and Chairman, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP; and Marc Lampkin, Managing Partner, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP, discussed tax reform.
Sept. 19, 2017 (left to right): Wendy Gill, SVP, Corporate Operations & CAO, Columbia Property Trust, Inc. (NYSE: CXP); Cullen Walsh, Assistant Director, Financial Accounting Standards Board; Steven Jacobs, Partner, EY; Sandra Bakaysa, Sr. Manager–Department of Professional Practice, KPMG; and Molly Cummings, Partner, Deloitte LLP, offered updates on developments in financial standards.
Sept. 19, 2017 (left to right): David Wolff, CAO & VP-Financial Reporting, Taubman Centers, Inc. (NYSE: TCO); Nancy Anderson, VP-Financial Reporting & CFO, RealPAC; Cullen Walsh, Assistant Director, Financial Accounting Standards Board; and George Yungmann, SVP-Financial Standards, NAREIT, participated in a panel focused on FASB/IASB financial statement presentation projects.
Sept. 19, 2017 (left to right): Anna Fitzgerald, SVP & CAO, Care Capital Properties, Inc.; Kathleen Geil, VP-Operations Systems & Processes, Corporate Office Properties Trust (NYSE: OFC); Clay Hallman, Director, Simon Property Group, Inc. (NYSE: SPG); and Lauren Stokes, Director, RealFoundations, discussed struggles and successes in data governance processes.
(Contact: Pam Coleman at pcoleman@nareit.com)