Media and Entertainment Conglomerate
Executive Offices - Real Estate Holdings and Management

    Senior Director Global Real Estate Holdings

New York City - USA based
FMS OIC reporting to Vice President Corporate Real Estate, New York City - USA

Client: A diversified U.S. based global media and entertainment conglomerate with television network, sports, cable TV, radio, print, publishing, outdoor advertising, amusement venues, entertainment and media and industrial holdings. The firm operates businesses globally and this search was relevant to all domestic and international real estate holdings and lease negotiations.

Search: Senior Director – Global Real Estate Holdings and Management

Client Situation: The Vice President of Corporate Real Estate identified Filcro Media Staffing to conduct the search based on FMS completing (3) three other successful searches, in the same environment on Director, Manager and Lease Negotiator levels. Due to the media, communication and entertainment nature of the facilities and real estate holdings FMS was ideally qualified to conduct the search from a hard and soft skill perspective and had previous exposure on tactical and strategic levels to keep all succession planning objectives in the forefront of the search.

Industry and Sector inclusion:

• Television Broadcasting
• Telecommunications
• Cable TV
• Radio
• Print Publishing
• Entertainment and Entertainment Venues
• Industrial and Manufacturing
• Financial Services

FMS was retained.

FMS Officer in Charge of Search TF was asked to commence a U.S. North East search and establish guidelines to assure the implementation of proper acquisition, management, lease negotiation and disposition of real estate holdings. It was the opinion of FMS from the onset that a suitable universe of candidates could be identified in the New York City and surrounding markets.

FMS was provided with confidential succession plans for the real estate division that played a vital role in identifying a distinct group of proper executives. Clear definitions were established with the Vice President of Corporate Real Estate to assure that the new Senior Director would be capable of defined growth within a two to three year window. FMS already had a cultural understanding of the firm through prior identification and understood the issues of identifying a new Senior Director that could be perceived as a “parity issue” with regard to other Directors in the department. Human resources gave guidance and ultimately advocated a “grade” change to justify compensation that was more market driven to facilitate attraction.

The diversity of this particular Media and Entertainment Conglomerate lines of businesses and the diversity and vastness of the real estate holdings would pose a challenge for any competent corporate real estate executive. Motion Picture Studios, Office Buildings, Raw Land, Industrial and Sophisticated Communications Facilities would be prime examples of the types of transactions this person would be in charge of from a management perspective. Establishing an initial universe of qualified real estate executives was done with little or no latitude expressed in the hard skill set sectors. The clearly defined skills allowed no room for recruitment latitude from a tactical or strategic perspective. The fact that FMS reported directly to the hiring manager who was also the Vice President of Real Estate offered many advantages as the VP RE was clearly identifying a possible heir apparent.

Some of the biggest challenges facing the new Senior Director of Real Estate (SDRE) were:

• Locating appropriate real estate within the established corporate framework
• In conjunction with the Legal Department, negotiating all provisions contained in a lease document
• Negotiating competitive business terms, landlord services, leasehold improvements, special requirements
• Reviewing operating expense statements, ensuring compliance with lease obligations, analyzing costs and calculations, assisting business managers with budgets and rent increases
• Maintaining the accuracy of the inventory databases, generating management reports, preparing lease abstracts
• Negotiating lease cancellations, subleases and sales contracts for idle assets and vacant properties
• Change Management
• Training
• Continuity Across Varied Lines of Business
• Budget Controls
• Best Practices

Solution: FMS proceeded to Identify the "best in industry" real estate executives who had performed similar functions in and out of the media and entertainment industry. Due to the uniqueness of the size and diversity of the real estate holdings, an executive who was accustomed to a minimum of 50 to 100 transactions per year was essential. This posed serious constraints on the initial universe of qualified candidate and ultimately led to identification form an “ideal skill environment” as opposed to “ideal industry”.

An executive capable of focusing on tactical and strategic issues based on market driven conditions dictated a national and global acumen with vendors, contractors architects, builders, brokers and developers. With such diverse contacts and experience in varied lines of business required there needed to be clear success in the past dealing with and maintaining solid relationships across all these areas of concern.

The VP of RE was receptive to varied industries as long as all the soft and hard skills were proven and gave FMS complete autonomy during the search process to determine the proper executive to be tiered.

Successful candidate identified: A Senior Director of Corporate Real Estate Holdings of one of the largest financial institutions in the United States.

The new Senior Director had been in charge of acquisitions and disposition of a substantial and diversified global real estate portfolio. She was also responsible for project coordination, site selection, lease negotiation of strategic corporate real estate projects above 25,000 square feet per transaction nationwide and managed coordination of individual projects under 25,000 square feet with corporate subsidiaries seeking guidance.

She also managed two call center projects and a project to consolidate 48 existing call centers into three national service centers for the firm’s domestic healthcare group. Project size(s) 100,000 and 325,000 sq. ft respectively.

Experience included analyzing business case project approvals submitted by business units and submitting recommendations to senior most management on a divisional and corporate level. Her acumen maximized overall return to the enterprise by the relocation of business units from third party locations to owned properties and managing master planning of multiple business units in proximate geographic areas.

With her proven experience of also managing a separate international portfolio of 115 properties the firm’s domestic and international concerns would be addressed effectively while she managed all domestic concerns.

With a Masters of Science in Real Estate Development & Investment Analysis from New York University and appropriate licenses, our firm had identified an “ideal” executive who had the experience, education, stability and wisdom to facilitate all functional and succession planning considerations.

Since joining the firm this executive has been promoted to Vice President and is inline for another promotion.

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