Who Runs Real Estate?
That’s the question The Real Deal’s reporters and editors ask as each year shifts into gear. Who gets deals done, gets money moving into projects, gets shovels going?
Those big players in the market are the main characters of our pages. We track the builders and dealmakers in every segment of the industry, from commercial to residential, development to finance. We follow the brokers and their bosses, the marketers and money.
And we make it our business to sort out the big leaguers from the wannabes.
Real estate is a complicated game. There’s no absolute measure of victory or definitive moment of triumph. The most brilliant developers sometimes come up with a dud. Even the wiliest brokers can’t close every deal. So to make our list of the 100 most important people in real estate, we had to look at our data, talk with sources, read copious amounts of coverage here in TRD and elsewhere and, of course, have a spirited newsroom debate. Now we offer our lists of the 100 most important people in each of the markets we cover.
Each person on our list merits a biography and most have already received their fair share of TRD coverage (for better or worse). You can read our notes on all of them by clicking on the picture next to their name.
Together, they paint a colorful picture of a complex industry. In working on this project we’ve started to map the many ways people even in seemingly disparate sections of real estate work together, and gotten a better understanding of how outside forces play a powerful role in shaping private industry.
But keep in mind – real estate’s wheels of power and fortune are always turning. We’ll be revisiting this list every year to see what new characters are rising to the top, who’s falling off, and who’s staying carefully balanced at their peak.
Thanks for reading.
Aby Rosen
Chief Executive Officer
RFR
Adam Modlin
Founder, Chief Executive Officer
The Modlin Group
Adi Chugh
Chief Executive Officer
TYKO Capital
Albert Behler
Chief Executive Officer, Chairman
Paramount Group
Andrew Chung
Chief Executive Officer
Innovo Property Group
Anthony Malkin
Chief Executive Officer
Empire State Realty Trust
Barry Gosin
Chief Executive Officer
Newmark
Ben Ashkenazy
Chief Executive Officer
Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation
Ben Brown
Co-President of Real Estate; Head of the Americas Region
Brookfield Properties
Bess Freedman
Chief Executive Officer
Brown Harris Stevens
Bill Rudin, Eric Rudin, Samantha Rudin Earls and Michael Rudin
Co-chairmen; co-Chief Executive Officers
Rudin
Bob Knakal
Chairman, Chief Executive Officer
BKREA
Bruce Mosler and Ethan Silverstein
Chairman of Global Brokerage; Executive Vice Chairman
Cushman Wakefield
Carrie Chiang
Broker
Corcoran
Cea Weaver
Director
Housing Justice For All
Charles Cohen
President
Cohen Brothers Realty Corporation
Christopher Schlank and Nicholas Bienstock
Co-Chairman, President; Co-chairman, Chief Executive Officer
Savanna
Clayton Orrigo and Stephen Ferrara
Co-founders, Hudson Advisory Team
Compass
Daniel Brodsky
Chief Executive Officer
Brodsky Organization
David Bistricer
Chief Executive Officer
Clipper Equity
David Schwartz
Principal, Co-Founder
Slate Property Group
David Werner
Founder
David Werner Real Estate
Deborah Kern
Broker
Corcoran
Dina Levy
Commissioner
Department of Housing Preservation and Development
Doug Harmon and Adam Spies
Co-heads of U.S. Capital Markets
Newmark
Doug Middleton and Bill Shanahan
Vice Chairman, NY Investment Sales; Chairman, NY Capital Markets
CBRE
Douglas and Jody Durst
Chairman; President
Durst Organization
Douglas Eisenberg
Chief Executive Officer
A&E
Drew McKnight
Co-Chief Investment Officer
Fortress Investment Group
Frances Katzen
Broker
Douglas Elliman
Francis Greenburger
Chairman, Chief Executive Officer
Time Equities
Gary Barnett
Managing Principal
Extell Development
Gary LaBarbera
President
Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York
Gary Phillips and Will Silverman
Managing Directors
Eastdil Secured
Harry Macklowe
Chief Executive Officer
Macklowe Properties
Hilary Spann
Executive Vice President, New York
BXP
Ian Schrager
Founder
Ian Schrager Company
Jamie Dimon
Chief Executive Officer
JPMorgan Chase
Jason Haber
Co-Founder
American Real Estate Association
Jason Hart
Managing Director, US Real Estate
Carlyle Group
Jasper Wu
Vice president
Jed Walentas
Chief Executive Officer
Two Trees Management
Jeff Blau
Chief Executive Officer
Related Companies
Jeff Sutton
Founder, President
Wharton Properties
Jeffrey Gural
Chair and Principal
GFP Real Estate
Jim Whelan
President
Real Estate Board of New York
Joe Moinian
Founder, Chief Executive Officer
Moinian Group
John Santora
Chief Executive Officer
WeWork
Jon Gray
President, Chief Operating Officer
Blackstone