On Wednesday, September 9, NAREIM will launch the first corporate diversity and inclusion benchmark for real estate investment management.

And we want every NAREIM member to participate, irrespective of size or strategy.

The benchmark continues the work of NAREIM’s benchmarking research – conducted by Ferguson Partners through the Global Management and Compensation surveys – and will collect data on diversity across gender and ethnicity based, not just, on levels of seniority, but also according to job functions.

Your participation is critical.

On September 9, every NAREIM member will be invited by Ferguson to share their data on diversity and inclusion through a password-protected portal.

NAREIM has tracked D&I since 2017, through its Compensation Survey:

• In 2019, NAREIM data showed 16% of executive management were women – up from just 12% in 2017.

• Just 4% of men and 2% of women at executive leadership levels were Asian or African American, according to the 2019 research.

But we need better data – and more of it to truly track the progress of our industry towards diversity and inclusion.

That is why, NAREIM and NAREIM’s Diversity & Inclusion committee, led by Kristin Renaudin, CFO of Stockbridge as chair, and Reisa Bryan, COO of Nuveen Real Estate as vice chair, is also inviting other investment managers to participate to create a robust data set for us all. Our aim is to create a data set that provides an industry-specific baseline for managers to track corporate change.

This is an issue you as corporations are keenly focused on – and an issue that all of us, as individuals, are fiercely passionate about. Only together can change become reality.

Of course, diversity is not about checking a box.

As NAREIM’s Investor Perspectives series on D&I continues to reveal, diversity and inclusion are, ultimately, about increasing the diversity of thought within our enterprises.

• Make sure you read our upcoming interviews with Oregon’s Tony Breault, Texas ERS’ Bob Sessa, World Bank’s Christina Scarlato and CalSTRS’ Mike DiRe.

• Also read the past interview with Alisa Mall of The Carnegie Corporation.

Data is a just one component of the actions you, and NAREIM, are taking together to track and enact inclusive changes.

NAREIM’s Diversity & Inclusion committee – which also includes AEW, Barings, BentallGreenOak, Berkshire, Blue Vista, CapRidge, Clarion, Dermody, Gemini, Invesco, PGIM, Principal and Waterton – is working hard on real-time actions to help members create and drive forward D&I strategies.

Over the coming months, you’ll hear more about the work the D&I committee is doing and we invite all NAREIM members to be a part of that work to create a true industry coalition centered on inclusion for all professionals in and across real estate investment management.

For more information on the NAREIM Diversity & Inclusion survey, contact Zoe Hughes at zhughes@nareim.org.