The stars were out during the last day of the CoreNet Global Summit in Anaheim.

Attendees had a rare opportunity to hear from film legend Spike Lee. The Academy Award winner and multiple nominee discussed the topic of diversity in the workplace, in the context of his own career with Nita Mosby Tyler, PhD, Chief Catalyst and Founder of the Equity Project.

Lee said that people need to accept the fact that we need diversity and noted that companies with diverse leadership demonstrated better financial performance.

And the two discussed the subtle difference between diversity and inclusion, with inclusion being a practice of actively including diverse people in key decision making – as in being in the room where it happens!

Lee also emphasized the need to collaborate while also retaining control, something that he has been dedicated to in his film career.

“Very few people really know everything. Why would you not want to work with great people who help you grow your business?” he said.

And he noted that his career has not been without disappointments.

“There were many times in my life where i was on a path, and one step more I was off the cliff. Disappointment is a part of life. Nothing disgraceful about it. They key things is how do you react to disappointment….Many people have told me that I’ve changed their life, for various reasons. Total strangers!”

Later that evening, CoreNet Global’s own stars took the stage at a gala dinner to receive several prestigious awards:

WarnerMedia won the 2019 H. Bruce Russell Global Innovator’s Award (GIA), which is sponsored by Gensler. WarnerMedia’s new headquarters combines all of the divisions of the media conglomerate into a single headquarters with 25 floors and 1.4 million square feet in one of New York City’s newest commercial developments. Joel Brenner and Steve Lefkowitz of WarnerMedia represented the company at the Summit and received the award.

Michael Davidson, Managing Director and Head of Corporate Real Estate, JP Morgan Chase,  was named Corporate Real Estate Executive of the Year.

Additional finalists were also announced:

• Fran Neville, MCR, Senior Director Real Estate and Facilities,General Dynamics Information Technology,Mid-Atlantic Chapter
• Mark Watkins, Director of Global Real Estate,Thermo Fisher Scientific, New England Chapter

Caroline Court, Head of Real Estate, East Asia Oceana at Ericsson, and a member of the Hong Kong chapter of CoreNet Global, received the H. Gordon Wyllie, MCR, Young Leader of the Year Award.

Additional finalists for this award:

• Alison Kwiatkowski,Vice President – Americas Business Partner, Deutsche Bank AG,New York City Chapter
• Ylva Sandberg, Operations Director, CBRE, Northern California Chapter

The Carolinas chapter received chapter of the year for the large/mega chapter category and the Connecticut Westchester chapter received chapter of the year in the small/medium chapter category.

The winner of the 5th annual CoreNet Global Academic Challenge was Vanderbilt University. The student team was awarded a $5000 prize for their ideas for developing a proactive strategy to:  “Recession-proof”, to the extent possible, the corporate real estate portfolio of a fictional company while continuing to support the business objectives of the corporation and ensure that said strategy does not negatively impact the company in the unlikely event that a recession does not materialize.

Finally, Sarah K. Abrams, and T. Patrick Donnelly, MCR.h  were formally inducted into the Distinguished Leaders Circle.