Bio
Herman Bulls is Vice Chairman, Americas, as well as an International Director and the founder of JLL’s highly acclaimed Public Institutions Business Unit, which specializes in delivering comprehensive real estate solutions to federal, state and local governments, economic development & nonprofit organizations and higher education institutions. He works with the firm’s largest public and corporate clients to devise and implement integrated real estate strategies to lower occupancy costs and increase productivity. During over 29 years at JLL, Mr. Bulls has worked in the areas of development, investment management, asset management, facilities operations and business development/retention. He has developed relationships with many of the firms leading public and corporate clients. He provides thought leadership and strategic guidance to senior level executives for real estate issues. Mr. Bulls has also served as an expert witness on real estate matters in court as well as testified before Congressional committees on real estate issues.
Mr. Bulls co-founded and served as President and CEO of Bulls Capital Partners, a multi-family financing company. Additionally, he founded Bulls Advisory Group, LCC, a management and real estate advisory firm.
Prior to joining JLL, Mr. Bulls completed almost 12 years of active duty service with the United States Army. His last active duty assignments were working in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Financial Management at the Pentagon and as an Assistant Professor of Economics and Finance at West Point. He has completed the Army’s Airborne, Ranger and Command and General Staff College courses and served overseas in the Republic of Korea. He retired as a Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves in 2008.
Mr. Bulls received a BS degree in engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point and an MBA in finance from Harvard Business School. He is a member of the Executive Leadership Council. An organization of senior African American business executives from Fortune 500 companies, and former Chairman of the Executive Leadership Foundation, Mr. Bulls is a long-standing member of Leadership Washington and the Real Estate Executive Council (REEC). Mr. Bulls is a founding member and served as the inaugural President of the African American Real Estate Professionals (AAREP) of Washington, D.C. and serves on the University Development Council of the Urban Land Institute (ULI).
Mr. Bulls serves on several public, private and not for profit boards. Corporate board activities include Comfort Systems, USA (NYSE:FIX) a national HVAC mechanical contractor, and USAA, a Fortune 200 firm which is the leading provider of banking, insurance and investment management services to military members and their families. Additionally he is a member of the Real Estate Advisory Committee for New York State Teachers’ Retirement System, one of the nation’s largest pension funds and Rasmussen College, a private for profit post-secondary educational services technology company. In 2016 Mr. Bulls was named to the American Red Cross National Board of Governors, the non–profit organization that prevents and alleviates human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors.
Mr. Bulls served on the board of Tyco International (NYSE:TYC) the international provider of security and fire protection equipment and services until it was acquired by Johnson Controls in September of 2016. Mr. Bulls served on the board of Exelis, Inc. (NYSE:XLS) a global aerospace, defense, information and services company until it was acquired by Harris Corporation in 2015. He is a former board member of Computer Sciences Corporation which merged with HP Enterprises in April of 2017 to become DXC.
Under the Obama administration Mr. Bulls was selected by the Secretary of Veteran Affairs to serve as a member of the MyVA Advisory Committee, whose mission was to advise the Secretary on the modernization of VA’s culture, processes, and capabilities in order to put the needs, expectations, and interests of Veterans and beneficiaries first. Mr. Bulls is a board member of the West Point Association of Graduates where he previously served as Vice Chairman, the Board of Directors of the Thayer Leader Development Group, and the Military Bowl, an NCAA sanctioned football bowl game played in the nation’s capital each December. Mr. Bulls’ community board service has included the Friends and Family Board for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and he served as former Chairman of the Fannie Mae National Housing Advisory Council.
Show Notes
JLL & His Career There
- Overview of JLL– Investment Services and Occupying Services (7:20)
- Joined LaSalle Partners (now JLL) in 1989 (10:15)
- Met Pentagon leader who introduced him to LaSalle Partners (11:30)
- Initial projects- Manufacturers Hanover Plaza
- Investment Services- Handled the Oliver Carr Company as a client (12:30)
- Noticed something with Public real estate (13:00)
- In addition to his “day job” he started a Public real estate group internally at JLL in 1995
- Walked halls at the Pentagon to discuss opportunities
- Met with former HBS graduate at GSA and was able to get the assignment for the “Old Post Office” (became the Trump and now Waldorf Astoria Hotel)
- Got an assignment from Univ. of Penn- Hotel development
- Military assignments as well- Lead housing privatization process
- Built this “Public Institutions” practice doing over $1B today
- Representing it as a group that didn’t yet exist so had to arrange a team for every project he won
- Was so successful that he had to sell to both the client and to the company and he confronted management and said that unless they set up a group for him he would probably leave
- Resigned as an employee, but remained on their Board (21:30)
Greenpark Financial
- Hired to run Greenpark Financial in 1999 (22:00)
- Helped to grow that business until he left in 2004 when Willy Walker was brought into its parent Walker and Dunlop (22:30)
Bulls Capital
- Started a company with a consulting agreement with University of Pennsylvania (23:50)
- Concurrently he rejoined JLL
- Also concurrently set up his own Fannie Mae DUS lender in conjunction with Suntrust Bank
- Began joining corporate boards (26:00)
- Decided not to be dependent of one job and kept all activities as an independent consultant (27:00)
Rejoined JLL
- JLL hired him back to run the Public Institutions group (28:00)
- He maintained the portfolio of other activities (29:45)
- Simple job description is to “help the firm win” business in many different initiatives (30:00)
- Oversees Microsoft and Kaiser Permanente relationships (30:30)
- Typical year brings in 10-20 relationships per year- a rainmaker for the firm (31:00)
Boards
- USAA
- American Red Cross
- Board of West Point
- New York State Teachers Retirement System
- Host Hotels
- Comfort Systems, USA
- Defense Policy Board
Origin Story
- Raised in rural Alabama (33:30)
- Dad was employed by TVA and was killed while his Mom was pregnant with him and he was the seventh of seven children (33:50)
- His Mom, Lucy Bell, was a laborer, a cook and a life insurance collector (35:00)
- Became a LPN
- Talked about being Black in the rural South with the indignities he faced and it impressed upon him that diversity is important today (37:00)
- First Black starting quarterback at Coffee HS in Florance, AL
- 11 degrees among his siblings and him
West Point
- Gary Steele recruited him to West Point to play football (38:50)
- Why he served related to Vietnam, yet the opportunity to do something “hard” was appealing to him (41:40)
- Did Army Ranger training while at West Point- 3 phases of training (43:15)
- Served 11 years in active duty in the Army in Personnel and met his wife at Fort Dix (44:20)
- Minority recruiting for the Army- Communications skills (45:00)
- Coach K (Mike Krzyzewski) was the Army Basketball Coach while he was there- On Coach K’s COLE Leadership Board (45:30)
- Story about him not playing in the Army-Navy game and he pivoted to broadcasting (45:50)
- Thursday Night Live
- Lessons from Coach K- Perfection, Dedication, Practice (49:10)
- Reference to Coach Bobby Knight, Coach K’s mentor (50:00)
Lessons From Being a Black Man
- Black person lessons- Founded AAREP (African American Real Estate Professionals) (51:30)
- Story of the only white person in an all black person room (52:00)
- Discusses sensitivities as a black person (53:00)
- Discusses his fortune as a very successful Black person (53:45)
- Realizes that he might not be appreciated by other Black people
- He has been on a “crusade” for diversity in the real estate profession (55:00)
- He decided that a team at JLL was not diverse enough and said he wouldn’t do the assignment unless it was reconstituted with more diversity (55:50)
- The lesson was with a more diverse team the results were better (56:30)
- Impacting economics makes a difference (57:00)
- Economic Leadership Council (elcinfo.com) (58:30)
- Paying it Forward is extremely important (59:40)
- Mike Bush reference- Project REAP
- Good friend of his
Harvard Business School
- Three of his professors at West Point were HBS graduates (1:01:00)
- Was inspired to apply to HBS
- Applied to Yale Management School and was accepted while serving in the Army (1:03:15)
- Subsequently applied to Stanford and Harvard and was accepted and decided to go to Harvard due to his wife’s opportunity to go to Tufts (1:03:30)
His Wife
- She died 1 1/2 years ago (1:06:15)
- A Fellowship from US Army is being named for her- She worked there while he was teaching there (1:07:00)
- Two of their children attended West Point (1:07:30)
Philosophy
- Establish legitimacy by performing- Be the best you can be (1:10:30)
- His wife told his children that he prepares for all his efforts (1:11:00)
- Six Skills for Success (1:11:30)
- Interpersonal skills
- Communication (1:12:00)
- Diction
- Writing
- Listening
- Analytical skills– Quantitative then Qualitative (1:12:30)
- Leadership– One person can make a difference (1:13:00)
- Risk Taking (1:13:45)
- Passion (1:14:30)
- Networking and Connecting (1:15:10)
- Networking is “transactional” (1:15:45)
- Connecting– he is a connector (1:16:30)
- Do something for someone else without expecting anything in return (1:16:50)
- Planting acorns (1:18:40)
- Changing Mindsets (1:19:40)
- Majority of people 18 yrs. old and under are people of color (1:20:20)
- Questions posed to leaders today about the future relate to accepting diversity (1:21:00)
- Two Pandemics- COVID 19 and Social Pandemic (1:23:00)
- Health Pandemic- shock yet going now in the right direction (1:23:30)
- Social Pandemic- analogy about a “piece of pie” (1:24:20)
- Will need a strong leader to address these social issues (1:25:30)
- Willingness to serve (1:26:50)
Office Market Perspective
- Humans like interaction with others (1:28:50)
- The office market will never be what it was (1:29:00)
- Believes there will be a compromise about when to come into the office
- Women and Minorities will be the most affected by the policy of flexibility whether to come into the office- Not as many “chance” encounters (1:29:45)
- Path of least resistance (1:31:00)
- Hybrid situation for office occupancy (1:31:30)
- Office market impact on retail and other services (1:32:20)
- GSA not going to the office impact is huge on the social fabric (1:33:15)
- Bifurcation of high and low income people (1:35:00)
ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance)
- Governance- Majority of real estate firms are small (1:37:00)
- Social- Clients are demanding diversity in teams for assignments (1:37:20)
- Commitment to diversity (1:38:45)
- Part of checklist for investments or other employment (1:40:00)
- Environment- JLL is a worldwide leader in green (1:40:20)
- Reference to the Carbon Almanac, Seth Godin (1:41:00)
- Fluence-AES & Siemens JV- He is chair of this venture for energy storage for utility backups
- Using renewables when we can (1:42:00)
Personal
- Losses
- White House Fellowship- Was not appointed to it when he was younger (1:44:00)
- Running Greenpark Financial- He was let go when Willy Walker joined the firm (1:45:00)
- Brand Management (1:45:45)
- Multiple brands- gives him flexibilty (1:46:00)
- Brand Management (1:45:45)
- Didn’t achieve playing in the Army-Navy Game (1:46:50)
- Wins
- Appointed to the Defense Policy Council (1:47:20)
- John Huntsman and he are the two business people on the council (1:47:30)
- Building the Public group at JLL (1:48:40)
- Being on several different boards and associations- Makes his brand (1:49:15)
- Appointed to the Defense Policy Council (1:47:20)
- Surprise
- His wife’s agreeing to marry him and then her illness and the message she told him about having memories (1:50:30)
- Life Priorities
- Family- coaching children (1:51:30)
- His son is coaching his grandchildren
- Forming and joining the volunteer organizations the advocate for minorities and other councils (1:52:20)
- George Baker is his influence
- Family- coaching children (1:51:30)
- Advice to 25 Yr. Old Self
- Go toward difficult challenges to get to the long term benefits to learn about oneself (1:54:15)
- Can’t take “no” for an answer (1:54:30)
- Billboard Statement
- “Ask Not What Your Country Can Do for You, ask what you can do for your country” (1:56:00)
Postscript
- Rameez Munawar Takeaways
- Don’t be afraid to challenge yourself
- Combination of analytical skills, communication skills and leadership skills
- Don’t be afraid to bet on yourself
- Thread of Alabama to West Point to the Army to HBS to LaSalle Partners to starting a Public Real Estate company internally
- Challenging things are the most important things in life
- Flexibility and maneuverability
- Minorities in corporate environments feel they live a double life
- Rameez feels like he doesn’t belong sometimes in a professional environment
- Fight or flight perspective- “Grab the bull by the horns” and do what you want to do
- Now minorities can be leveraged positively due to the need for diversity
- Returning to the office- positive impressions when in person rather than on virtual situations
- As a minority you have to work harder to prove what they can deliver
- Reference to Jair Lynch, where he worked before- Both Jamestown and Lynch are great places for recognizing him as a worker as a minority
- Individuals are important
