Bio
Kyle Schoppmann serves as the President of CBRE’s Mid-Atlantic Division, which includes offices in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C. Kyle oversees the day-to-day strategic direction, performance and growth of the Mid-Atlantic Division for all CBRE lines of business. She holds responsibility for the development and management of our professionals, directing the creation and implementation of tools and training that drive their success.
Kyle joined CBRE as Managing Director, Brokerage Services, in 2007, assumed responsibility for Capital Markets as Senior Managing Director in 2009, and in 2014 was promoted to Executive Managing Director. She served as the head of Occupier Services and Executive Managing Director for CBRE’s Tri-State region prior to leading the Mid-Atlantic Division.
Kyle has more than 20 years of experience in sales strategy, training and professional development. She was previously a Consulting Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers and then IBM, where she worked closely with C-level executives on complex change initiatives. Prior to IBM, she held various sales and marketing positions at the Dow Chemical Company.
Kyle currently serves as a member of CBRE’s Executive Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Council. She is also a member of Leadership Greater Washington (Class of 2019), Federal City Council and the Economic Club of Washington, D.C. Kyle has been named to the Washington Business Journal’s first-ever “Greater Washington’s New Guard” list, the Power 100 List and is a Women Who Mean Business Honoree. In 2019, Kyle was named to Washingtonian’s list of the Most Powerful Women in Washington, and in 2020, she was featured in Virginia Business Magazine’s Virginia 500 – The 2020 Power List.
Show Notes
- Responsible for CBRE Advisory Business in Mid-Atlantic- Strategic direction in all disciplines (5:00)
Origins and Education
- Grew up in Short Hills, NJ (5:45)
- Only child (6:00)
- Mother was a teacher aid and outgoing (6:20)
- Father was a civil engineer (6:30)
- Infrastructure engineering
- Had an experience in the UAE as a child while her father was doing engineering (7:10)
- Milburn HS in Short Hills, NJ
- Wanted to be an astronaut growing up (8:10)
- Attended Duke University (8:45)
- Civil Engineering major
- Wanted to be in the South for college
- Liked math and science
Career
- Joined Dow Chemical (10:25)
- Rotational assignments program (10:45)
- Like CBRE “Wheel” Program
- Moved in several areas within the company
- Sales and marketing was chosen (11:00)
- 9 years at Dow (11:30)
- Moved to Atlanta to sell polyethylene products (11:45)
- Manufacturers of plastic molded products customers (12:00)
- Rotational assignments program (10:45)
- Went to University of Michigan’s Ross Business School while at Dow (13:20)
- Attended full time
- Moved from Dow to PWC in consulting (14:30)
- Advisory work (14:45)
- Supply change initially and then “change management” (16:45)
- Advising corporations in sales systems efficiency (17:10)
- Rewarding to see a strategy she set being implemented (17:40)
- IBM acquired PWC Consulting while she was there (17:50)
CBRE Career
- A friend reached out to her about CBRE to meet and learn more about an opportunity (18:15)
- Met her husband while at CBRE (19:20)
- Being in NYC and her civil engineering background along with the people intrigued her to join CBRE (19:55)
- Non real estate background brings a different perspective (20:50)
- Effectiveness in sales consultative approach (21:00)
- Managing Director in NY office-office leasing brokers and expanded to capital markets (22:00)
- Culture evolution (24:00)
- Expanded from “sales” culture to “consulting” culture (24:15)
- Team building and market information sharing- proprietary to CBRE (24:40)
- Ran Law Firm practice group out of NY nationally for 7 years (25:50)
- Managed brokerage, now sales brokerage- “put best team on the field” (26:35)
- Perimeter office environment in the past…evolution to reduce footprint (27:50)
- Technology and apprenticeship model (28:40)
- Open environment listening is important (30:00)
- Hybrid world now (30:20)
- Diversification of revenues for CBRE (31:00)
- 2007 merger with Trammell Crow Company diversified firm (31:15)
- Even between recurring account business and large transaction revenue (31:45)
- Variability is challenging to predict (32:30)
- Larger companies have significant opportunities (33:45)
- CBRE has entrepreneurial culture (33:50)
- Long term perspective about COVID impact (34:40)
- Still evolving and it is still unknown (34:50)
- Momentum of return to the office is good so far (35:00)
- Their office is adapted for collaboration and technology (35:50)
- Flexibility is the name of the game now (36:20)
- She moved from NY in 2019 and had to manage the relocation of the DC CBRE office from the East End to the CBD (1900 N St. NW) (37:00)
- Workplace 360 in their office (38:00)
- Entry experience is special and workspace is “perfect” (38:20)
- Flight to quality in office space (39:00)
- Air quality is important for safety and environment (40:20)
- Residential conversion of office buildings in DC- Adaptive re-use (41:10)
- Conversion opportunities in life sciences in the I-270 corridor (42:00)
- Owners doing spec suites (43:00)
- Flex space for smaller users on a short term basis
- Tools for approaching hybrid office needs (44:10)
- Designing space to accommodate it- collaborative space (44:40)
- Workplace strategy team (44:50)
- Change management (45:00)
- Employee engagement (46:15)
- Food & beverage and/or celebrations (46:30)
- Social engagement important (46:50)
- Magnetize workplace (47:15)
- Other employees need to be here to attract people (47:20)
- Flight to quality research (48:00)
- Rent higher for quality (48:15)
- Move up of at least one class
- Guided flexibility (picking days to be in the office) (48:45)
- Health & wellness is now even more important (49:20)
- Migration trends- still more outward than back in yet (50:10)
- Mixed use real estate still very attractive even in suburbs (50:45)
- Apartment management not a current service (52:00)
- Trends in services offerings (53:20)
- Workplace strategy more nuanced today due to pandemic influence (53:30)
- Scientific applications to measuring needs (53:50)
- Labor and analytics on hiring needs regarding location applications (54:00)
- Americas consulting practices brought together (54:40)
- User that may want to relocate who can receive assistance on location analysis (55:00)
- Design group to help with laying out potential space needs for new space (55:45)
- Workplace strategy more nuanced today due to pandemic influence (53:30)
- Hiring across the spectrum (57:10)
- Variety of opportunities at CBRE and build a career (57:15)
- Leadership role training and several choices for non-sales (58:00)
- Provide as many services as possible for clients (58:50)
- Breadth of services (59:15)
- ESG & DEI influences important (59:20)
- Client services without inducement (1:01:00)
- Managing brokers has its challenges- coaching and collaboration is important (1:02:20)
- Coaching/influencing model (1:02:45)
- Difficult conversations around what works and doesn’t work (1:04:00)
- People development is her most fun part (1:04:20)
- Develop trust (1:04:50)
- ESG is all encompassing (1:05:30)
Philosophy and Personal
- Felt she could do anything as a woman in the business (1:07:30)
- Through roles she plays she attempts to effect change (1:08:15)
- Allocate commissions for women that need to take time away for family needs (1:08:30)
- Parental leave policy changes (1:09:00)
- Multidisciplinary Approach to Thinking, Peter Kaufman (1:10:45)
- Dog and Cat stories (1:11:30)
- Life Priorities (1:12:45)
- Work is her love and has a strong work ethic (1:12:50)
- Family is #1 priority- Only child taking care of her parents to the end (1:13:20)
- Great husband (1:14:00)
- Giving back- Honoree of Boys & Girls Club of Washington (1:14:30)
- Bring young people into real estate business (1:14:45)
- Interested in Arts
- Surprising Event- Leading a team through a pandemic…nothing was expected (1:15:30)
- Wins- Living it now with her current job and situation (1:16:20)
- Losses are lessons- How one takes lessons from experiences. (1:17:00)
- Individual who inspired here- Mary Ann Tighe in New York when she was hired (1:19:15)
- Advice to 25 yr. old self- Be present and take times for oneself along the way (1:20:15)
- Billboard Statement- “Be Kind” (1:21:30)
