Chapter Meeting Recaps
August Chapter Meeting // Thursday, August 15 // Redwood City
Wisdom @ Work - The Modern Elder
CoreNet NorCal’s exciting August Chapter meeting featured hospitality industry legend and author Chip Conley who delivered a thought provoking keynote based on his 2018 book Wisdom @ Work: The Making of a Modern Elder. Conley shared insights from his transformative experience working as Head of Global Hospitality and Strategy at Airbnb after selling his famed boutique hotel company Joie de Vivre.
While extremely rewarding, the assignment proved tricky given that Conley, who knew nothing about technology, reported to and at the same time mentored CEO Brian Chesky who is 21 years his junior. Being a “mentern” (both mentor and intern) motivated him to evolve personally and inspired him to help other midlife workers learn how to thrive during their next chapter. Conley pointed out that there are five generations in the workforce for the first time in history and made the compelling case for the value of the human skills of older workers to balance out the digital skills of younger workers and for treating ageism in the workplace like other types of diversity. For more information about Conley’s book and his Modern Elder Academy click here.

Featured Member Profile - Robert Teed
Robert Teed is a forward thinking corporate real estate executive who is passionate about employee experience. Excluding a brief one year detour in the late 90’s (which he believes the universe made happen simply so that he could meet his wife Kristin) he has been a student of the workplace for the entirety of his career, which dates back to 1988. “I have been very fortunate to have worked with some really amazing companies and a vast array of talented people over the years,” said Teed. “Each has allowed me to stretch, learn and build new muscles.”
Thriving in his current role as Vice President of Real Estate & Workplace, at ServiceNow, Teed is responsible for ensuring that the company delivers great employee experiences through their physical workplaces, and through the broad range of employee services. Teed indicates that he has made a major mindset shift over time, especially over the past 10 years. “I came to the grand realization that I am actually in the employee experience business, rather than the real estate business,” he said. “I just happen to deliver those experiences through physical places.”
One of the top initiatives for Teed’s team is ensuring that they continue to scale their portfolio of workplaces around the world to accommodate their significant company and headcount growth. “At the same time, we are tasked with delivering great employee experiences in our existing and legacy workplaces through refreshing and reinvesting,” said Teed. “Balancing those two is both exciting and challenging.” Additionally, he is in charge of the physical security and business continuity management functions.
One of the trends that most excites Teed these days is Workplace as a Service (WaaS). He believes the industry is very close to having real enterprise-level solutions available in this space. His observation is that the journey to WaaS looks very much like the journey that Software as a Service (SaaS) and Cloud Computing has taken. “Many enterprises built and operated their own data centers full of on-premise software just a decade ago. Now huge portions of that need have moved into the cloud and into subscription-based and highly flexible consumption-based models,” said Teed. “I am bullish in my belief that we will arrive in roughly the same place in WaaS as we have with SaaS and the Cloud”.
Teed joined CoreNet in 2002 and became increasingly involved as he worked his way through his MCR designation. In 2012 he joined the Chapter Leadership team as a co-chair of the CoreNet Apprentice Program (CAP) and became President Elect in 2018 before taking the reigns as President in April, 2019. “CoreNet and especially our Northern California Chapter is very special, in ways I sometimes struggle to quantify or articulate,” said Teed. “We are a group of highly engaged professionals from all corners of corporate real estate which makes the networking aspect absolutely invaluable.” In fact, Teed attributes his securing each job he has held since joining CoreNet to his network.
“Our chapter is wired to provide members with a ton of value, and even a casual participant will benefit from being a member,” said Teed. “However, I am a firm believer that the value one receives increases exponentially with increased engagement in the chapter. In my experience, one gets far more value out than effort in by engaging more deeply.” Teed suggests members serve on a committee, participate in a special interest group, become a mentor or mentee, host an intern, or speak on a panel in order to expand their involvement. “On a more personal level CoreNet is a simply a group of people I sincerely enjoy being around,” he said. “I have developed some of my closest friendships as a result of my active participation in the organization.”
Teed encourages young professionals to explore new horizons such as WaaS. He believes that in order to unlock its potential we need technology platforms and applications as well as an entire spectrum of analytics that are yet to be created. “We need to digitally transform corporate real estate and workplace, in ways similar to our friends in Human Resources and other business functions and industries,” said Teed. “That means we need to attract really creative problem solvers with the skills to make that digital transformation happen. So, if you have technology or science in your DNA, you increasingly have a place in corporate real estate.”
He also recommends those early in career embrace that corporate real estate is in the experience business. With landlords, occupiers and service providers all making that shift, Teed believes that those who come in aligned with that mindset will be welcomed warmly. “We need people who are service-oriented and might otherwise go into hospitality and customer service to choose the corporate real estate path. This also means we need people engaged in behavioral sciences and research to help us more deeply understand the science behind ‘experience’.”
On the personal front, Teed describes himself as recovering musician having played in rock bands from his mid-teens to his mid-20’s, semi-professionally for about five of those years.
“I knew early on, however, that I was not cut out to be a starving artist, so playing music moved into the hobby category for me once it started to seriously collide with my day job,” said Teed. “I remember a music producer I once worked with giving me a bunch of grief for not being willing to do an all-night recording session; I had to be at work at 8 am the next day and it was already 2 am!! No amount of caffeine in the world would solve that, so that’s roughly when I decided to re-prioritize music.”
These days Teed is the proud father of Colin (10), Carter (15) and Tori (30) – and grandfather to Olivia (2). He and his wife Kristin just celebrated their 20-year anniversary. “With two young boys at home, aging parents, my responsibilities at ServiceNow, and my CoreNet NorCal duties, I am fully subscribed!” he said. “There is honestly no time left over at this point in my life to do much else. I am very blessed, however, and would not change a thing.”

Request for Committee Members
Get more involved in CoreNet NorCal! One of the best ways to increase your involvement and really get to know other members of CoreNet NorCal is by joining a committee. The CoreNet committees create and organize the events, meetings, programs and publications that you enjoy. Committees you can join are: Young Leaders, Special Events, Programs, Membership, CoreNet Apprentice Committee (CAP), Communications, and Technology. All of our committees are looking for volunteers. If you are interested in joining a committee, please contact our Administrative Director, Michelle Lagos, at michelle.lagos@cbre.com or (415) 720-0366, and she will connect you with a committee.

Young Leaders Update
CNYL Summer Party Recap
CoreNet Young Leader’s Summer Party occurred on July 10th aboard the Adventure Cat in the bay. The catamaran, which set sail at 5pm sharp, hosted over 75 Young Leaders for a 3-hour tour of the Bay. The weather couldn’t have been more perfect – Karl the fog burned off just in time to view a gorgeous sunset behind the Golden Gate Bridge. Many new faces (and future prospective young leaders) attended and left energized and inspired to join our organization. An epic group photo was taken mid boat ride just as we crossed under the bridge toward the ocean and flocks of pelicans (as well as an old army plane) flew overhead as we set to dock back at Pier 39. We all agreed it was the first of many annual summer boat parties and look forward to setting sail in 2020 with even more Young Leaders!
CNYL Professional Development Series // Monday, September 23 // San Jose
We’ll be kicking off the first of three professional development courses for Young Leaders in September. The first event of the series will be held at Coehesity in San Jose and cover how to Develop Personal Leadership. Be on the lookout for more communications to come out soon!

CoreNet Apprentice Program 2019 Recap
The CoreNet Apprenticeship Program (CAP) celebrated another outstanding season with the CAP Leadership Team delivering on its mission exceptionally well. Together with an excellent mix of Company Sponsors they provided a rich experience for five remarkable student interns that went way beyond the basic curriculum.
In its 14th year, the CAP program, which offers real world experience in the corporate real estate industry, is unique within CoreNet Global. This NorCal Chapter program has an inspiring mission: “Connect member companies, students, and CoreNet through meaningful internships focused on building knowledge, networks, and personal excellence in commercial real estate.” Each student is carefully matched with an internship based on their interests and qualifications and the Company Sponsor’s needs.
The basic curriculum provides the opportunity to:
- Gain understanding of a lease
- Become aware of the service lines within the industry
- Learn CRE software
- Build a network of industry contacts
In addition to gaining valuable work experience, this year’s students participated in a wide variety of exciting events. They attended the June chapter meeting at LinkedIn’s headquarters in Sunnyvale on June 20th, a CAP Kickoff at JLL in San Francisco on July 11th and the July chapter meeting (an exclusive movie screening!) at the incredible Dolby Cinema in San Francisco on July 18th. They also took part in three facility tours in San Francisco including the offices of CBRE in the Salesforce Tower, LinkedIn at 222 2nd Street, and VISA at One Market Plaza. Upon the conclusion of their internships each student delivered a closing presentation before the CAP Committee detailing what they learned.
Please click here for to see some of the highlights.
This year’s intern class and their Corporate Sponsors included:
Olivia Si-Ming Woo
Ms. Woo interned at JLL on the Kaiser Permanente account. A recent graduate of Tulane University with a B.S. in Finance and Legal Studies she was hired by JLL upon completing her internship! In her new role, as a transaction analyst, she works on Kaiser Permanente’s Southern California real estate deals.
Reece Bryan
Mr. Bryan was a corporate real estate intern at ServiceNow. A student at U.C. Berkeley, he plans to graduate with a B.S. in Environmental Economics and Policy in 2020.
Tina Teng
Ms. Teng was a Business Intelligence Analyst Intern at CBRE on the Google account. A student at U.C. Berkeley, she plans to graduate with a B.A. in Data Science in 2021.
Kaitlin Kang
Ms. Kang was a Strategy Intern at Gensler. A student at U.C. Berkeley, she plans to graduate in 2021.
Christopher McDermott
Mr. McDermott was a corporate real estate intern at Workday. A student at Ohio Wesleyan University, he plans to graduate in 2020.
Congratulations to all our 2019 interns!
A huge THANK YOU to our corporate sponsors!
JLL / Kaiser Permanente
CBRE / Google
Service Now
Workday
Gensler
Kudos to the entire CAP Leadership team:
Co-Chairs |
Committee Members |
Advisors |
Abe Villareal, JLL Nick DeMartini, CBRE |
Kiz Syed, View Glass Iby Li, JLL Wilton Qiu, Service Now Walter Dempsey, JLL Aaron Wong, JLL |
Molly Griffin, Knoll Jacki Teer, Cushman & Wakefield Nick Austin, Comfy Anthony Deggelman, JLL |
Robert Teed, Service Now Brian Thomas, CBRE Emily Ransone, Sidemark |

Upcoming Events
CNYL Lunch with a Leader // Wednesday, September 18 // Santa Clara
Lunch with a Leader - Paul Schaffer and Shane Bailey - Roche
The CoreNet Global Northern California Chapter Young Leaders are excited to announce a Lunch with a Leader session with Roche’s Site Head and Project Leader, Paul Schaffer and Senior Manager, Shane Bailey. Paul and Shane bring an extraordinarily unique and well-rounded background to the Roche Diagnostic and Life Sciences team. Paul is the head of the Roche Sequencing Solutions (RSS) Portfolio and Project Management. His team is responsible for the integration of information from BD, Finance, PMO and LCT’s. Shane serves as Site Security Officer for Roche with responsibilities ranging from security, janitorial, pest control, personnel relocations, shipping & receiving and fire protections.
Venue: Roche: 2841 Scott Blvd, Santa Clara, CA 95050
Schedule: Wednesday, September 18 // 11:45 AM - 1:00 PM
Cost: Young Leader Member: $20.00*
*This event has limited capacity. Must be a CoreNet Young Leader member to attend.

September Chapter Meeting // Thursday, September 19 // San Francisco
Results-Only Work Environment: A Business Platform for the Contemporary Workforce
Creating a culture of success is all about investing in a contemporary workplace & management model that insures your human capital is engaged, motivated and focused on what matters to the business. Not how many hours they work, how much effort they put in, or how well they play the game. The new currency of work is measurable results. Period.
Jody Thompson is a world-recognized future workplace expert and change-maker who has been featured on the covers of BusinessWeek, Workforce Management Magazine, HR Magazine, and HR Executive Magazine, as well as in the New York Times, TIME Magazine, USA Today, and on Good Morning America, CNBC, MSNBC and CNN. She is the co-creator of the proven management innovation system, the Results-Only Work Environment™ (ROWE™) which has profound implications for how we design, utilize & measure workspaces.
Venue: The City Club of San Francisco: 155 Sansome Street, 11th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94104
Schedule: 3:30p: Registration // 4:00p: Program // 5:30p: Reception
Cost: Member: $35.00 // Non-Member End User: $60.00 // Non-Member Service Provider: $85.00

CNYL Professional Development Series // Monday, September 23 // San Jose
CoreNet Young Leaders Professional Development Series: Dale Carnegie Workshop #1
What kind of leader do you want to be, and how can you make that happen? Are you leading by example? Is your leadership style the best it can be? Are you getting the best results for yourself, your team, and your organization? To develop your most effective personal leadership style, you should consider each of those questions and focus on establishing a style that will enable you to achieve all your goals.
Join CoreNet Northern California Young Leaders to enhance your business acumen & leadership skills that are at the heart of a successful career in CRE! Develop your personal leadership and help achieve organizational results by participating in the first session in our new Dale Carnegie Professional Development Series.
Venue: Cohesity: 300 Park Ave, Suite 1700, San Jose, CA 95110
Schedule: Monday, September 23 // 4:00 - 8:00 PM
Cost: Young Leader Member: $90.00

WOC September Program // Wednesday, September 25 // TBA
Bossed Up: A Roadmap for Women Who Want to Set Themselves Up for Sustainable, Long-term Career Success
Ready to kick burnout to the curb? What to find your own voice? Join us for an interactive workshop with author, speaker, and burnout & women's leadership expert Emilie Aries to effectively overcome the overwhelm. And to learn research-backed strategies to own your voice like a boss.
What you'll learn:
• The 4 root causes of burnout and how to recognize the warning signs
• How to identify and mitigate your burnout triggers
• And how to incorporate active and passive forms of renewal
• The difference between assertive vs. aggressive communication
• Research-driven strategies for overcoming gender bias when speaking up
• Visual, vocal, and verbal tactics to make hone your assertiveness
Venue: TBA in Silicon Valley / San Jose
Schedule: 3:30p: Registration // 4:00p: Program // 5:30p: Reception
Cost: Member: $35.00 // Non-Member End User: $60.00 // Non-Member Service Provider: $85.00
