Canadian commercial real estate has plenty to celebrate as another International Women’s Day passes.

Numerous women have broken through the proverbial glass ceiling to play prominent leadership roles in virtually all aspects of the industry.

Among recent promotions: Jennifer Podmore Russell became the chief development officer at Nch’ḵaỷ Development Corporation. The Vancouver-based firm is the real estate arm of the Squamish Nation. She joined the company in late 2023 after serving on its board for 18 months.

Podmore Russell is playing a leading role in the company’s massive Sen̓áḵw development, a transformative 6,000-unit multi-residential project in Vancouver’s Kitsilano area that involves the redevelopment of a former brewery site.

In other significant moves, Toronto-based Northcrest Developments promoted two female executives to senior positions. Kristy Shortall became EVP of development and Catharine Barnes became VP of of strategy and operations. Shortall is heading the company’s major mixed-use redevelopment project on the former Downsview Airport Lands, now known as YZD.

And, Toronto-based Hazelview Properties has appointed Shelly Poulin as vice-president of national operations. Poulin moved to Toronto-based Hazelview from Timbercreek, where she last served as director of national operations.

Several other women are making a difference in the sector.

Jenny McMinn, a Windmills Development partner who oversees communications and impact, has a track record of managing about million square feet (msf) of carbon-neutral community development, she has deep expertise in both real estate development and sustainability advisory. She is leading efforts to educate the real estate market on the firm’s One Planet Living principles and is dedicated to integrating the sustainability-oriented frameworks into Windmill’s North American developments.

Shonda Wong, a principal at SvN Architects + Planners, has played leading roles in advising developers on community development and urban-regeneration projects, including many multi-family, transportation and other infrastructure developments across North America.

She provides expert advice in complex projects involving multiple stakeholders, including transit, affordable housing, and tourism as SvN serves public and private-sector clients, including Toronto’s Metrolinx, the B.C. government and the owner of Toronto’s Westside mall.

“The easier way to almost summarize it is: Infrastructure,” said Wang of her and the company’s services in an interview with Connect.

She regard her and the company’s roles as aiding city-building.

“We need to start thinking about infrastructure more broadly. It’s not the hard infrastructure or the heavy civil infrastructure that we build and put in our cities. It’s thinking about housing as infrastructure, and all of the things that make a livable city, as infrastructure as well.

In 2024, Wang moved back to her hometown of Vancouver from Toronto to co-head SvN’s West Coast operations after the firm acquired Hotson Architecture.

Wang helped spearhead the deal after SvN and Hotson worked on a number of projects together. Although the acquisition came together relatively quickly, it was a long time in the making. Kai Hotson, the Vancouver firm’s founder, went to architecture school with a colleague of Wang and she had known him for years.

The countless other women in Canadian CRE leadership positions include Jane Renwick, EVP at Sevoy Developments. Viewed as an expert marketer, she has worked in Toronto multi-residential construction since the early 2000s. She oversees daily operations and spearheads Sevoy’s corporate growth strategy. 

The firm invests in urban transit-oriented areas and designs buildings that revolve around people. Renwick previously held leadership roles at Freed, Diamond Kilmer, Milborne, ONNI Group, and Urbanation.

Hero Mohtadi, vice president of regional operations and asset management at Dream, leads the firm’s national purpose-built rental portfolio, ensuring strategic growth and smooth operations among the buildings. She takes great pride in helping to build communities and initiatives at the company’s properties to help expand them.

Under her guidance, Dream’s multi-family rental portfolio has expanded significantly since 2021 through partnerships with various levels of government and other organizations while garnering multiple awards.

“It’s been incredibly rewarding to see how much we’ve achieved and grown so quickly,” she told Connect in 2024.

Mohtadi is playing a major role in Dream’s major mixed-use Zibi project in the National Capital region and several other notable development efforts inside and outside of Ontario and Quebec.

As CEO of PBA Group, Patricia Phillips leads the management, growth, strategic direction, business development, and asset and property management for the dynamic and expanding Calgary-based firm.

Phillips founded PBA after moving into commercial real estate from the oil and gas sector. PBA owns, manages and develops its own properties. Phillips is responsible for safeguarding the future and vitality of the organization, driving its progress through her expertise in business leadership.

She is a strong believer in diversity and strives to increase it.

“My personal experience and success working with people of diverse backgrounds tells me that the future will benefit from diversity as much as technology and other forms of innovation,” she writes on her LinkedIn page.

Under Phillips’ leadership, PBA Group has closed more than $1.5 billion in transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, dispositions, reverse takeovers, and amalgamations, demonstrating her skill in negotiation, structuring, and closing high-value deals. Before joining PBA Group, she was the founder and CEO of three successful private oil and gas companies engaged in the exploration and development of oil and natural gas in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin.

Since moving into commercial real estate, she has earned numerous awards. PBA and its properties, including the Dorian Hotel in Calgary, have also garnered a number of accolades under her guidance.

But many women also hold prominent CRE leadership outside of development.

Erin White serves as general manager of real estate services for property management and investment specialist BGO, working out of Edmonton. She manages an office and industrial portfolio exceeding 4.5 msf.

White has helped BGO capture many awards while earning several herself. She has also played a role in helping females advance in the industry, serving as a mentor and a regional leader of the BGO Women’s Network.

BGO’s other prominent women leaders include Christina Iacoucci, who serves  as the head of Canada and Canadian chief investment officer for BGO.

“As the leader for BGO in Canada, I have been particularly focused on fostering a culture of innovation,” she told Connect Canada CRE in an interview published as part of a summer 2024 leadership series.

“This involves encouraging cross-functional teams to experiment with new ideas, supported by a leadership team that values creativity and rewards calculated risks. I view the thorough evaluation and testing of new ideas – whether they succeed or don’t – as a learning opportunity, which is crucial for growth and innovation.”

On the brokerage front, Allison Marsales head Cushman & Wakefield’s national operation. In October 2023, Allison Marsales made history as she became the first woman to head a firm’s national brokerage services in Canada.

Marsales assumed the role of Cushman & Wakefield’s president of advisory for the country, responsible for driving the firm’s advisory business strategy and managing priorities across Canada.

From her Montreal office, Marie-France Benoit serves as Avison Young’s national director of market intelligence, providing insights for thousands of clients and commercial real estate professionals.

Since joining Avison Young in 2022, she has been responsible for developing and implementing the company’s market intelligence strategy across Canada, as well as overseeing the rollout of advanced market analysis solutions powered by the company’s technology.

Benoit speaks frequently at conferences and serves the industry in many ways as a volunteer. She is a past-president of CREW Montreal and previously served on the boards of the Quebec chapter of the Urban Development Institute and a Quebec technology park.

She has also served on several industry committees.

Her diverse skills cover development, leases, acquisitions and dispositions, real estate economics and appraisals, among other aspects of commercial properties and the analysis of them.

Meanwhile, Amy Erixon oversees billions of dollars worth of global commercial real estate investments for Avison Young while working out of Toronto.

Erixon, who has more than 35 years of industry experience, is full-service firm’s president of global investment as well as a principal of the company. She founded and heads Avison Young’s global investment practice on behalf of major institutional investors.

The group is active across all major, and select, property types in Canada, the U.S., Mexico, Germany and the U.K. Erixon is also a member of Avison Young’s executive committee, which steers the company’s overall strategic direction across all markets and leads its investment committee.

During her career, she has acquired, developed and repositioned portfolios valued in excess of $9 billion and completed large-scale rezoning and development projects in numerous North American markets.

However, despite women’s many advancements to CRE leadership heights relatively few hold C-suite positions, a situation that CREW and many other groups, such as human-resources firm, Catalyst, are striving to change.

Therefore, while the sector has many reasons to feel proud as another International Women’s Day passes, CREW and other organizations feel that there is still considerable room for improvement.

Pictured: Kristy Shortall, Northcrest Developments

Photo: Northcrest Developments