John Powers oversees the New York City and Princeton, N.J., operations of Boston Properties, the behemoth real estate investment trust that controls more than 50 million square feet of commercial space nationally, including such gems such as the General Motors Building and the Times Square Tower in Manhattan.

Boston Properties square footage total for New York and Princeton ran to more than 11.5 million as of late February. Powers manages all aspects of the firms involvement with this (and future) space, including development (and redevelopment), leasing and building operations.

Powers joined the firm in January 2014 after 10 years in a similar role at CBRE Inc.: There, he was chairman of that firms tri-state region. In 1986, he joined the Edward S. Gordon Company, which was subsequently absorbed by CBRE. Before that, Powers worked eight years at Swiss Bank Corp. (now UBS).

Throughout his career, Powers has brokered millions of square feet of leasing deals throughout Manhattan. Interestingly enough, one of his biggest clients was Boston Properties. He helped the firm, in fact, lease up 399 Park Avenue, the old Lehman Brothers headquarters, during the latter years of the last decade.

Powers earned a mathematics degree from St. Anselm College, and holds an economics masters and an MBA from the University of Massachusetts. He also did graduate work in international economics in Geneva. -TA