CREW Jax Communications Chair Named to JAA Top Management Position

Rosa Beckett

The Jacksonville Aviation Authority (JAA) today announced the promotion of two high-level executives and the hiring of a new business development director.

Tony Cugno has been named chief operating officer and Rosa Beckett has been named chief administrative officer.  Jay Cunio has been brought aboard to serve as the new director of business development.

Bob Simpson, who has been serving as Interim Chief Operating Office, is returning to his post as Senior Director of Cecil Airport.

“Tony and Rosa have been instrumental in helping move JAA forward,” said JAA Executive Director and CEO Steve Grossman. “They are both well deserving of these promotions and I’m delighted to be able to make this announcement.”

creWomen Entrepreneurs

A Panel From Within

By Emily F. Crews

Heather LePetrie, C.H.H.C., facilitated a panelist of five local entrepreneurial women on June 5^th.  These women included:

Brenda Ezell, Ezell Law Firm/2012 President CREW Jacksonville

Karen Faren, First Atlantic Bank

Leigh Gunn, IIDA, Group 4 Design

Janet Herrick, Onsite Environmental Consulting LLC

Heather Sams, HAS Art Solutions

Herrick, Farah, Ezell, Sams, Gunn and LePetrie

One of the first questions for the panelists was “What encouraged you to start your own business?”

Ezell stated flatly “billable hours.”  The crowd laughed.  It sounds funny, but it was true.  In the corporate world, lawyers are generally evaluated based on the amount of hours billed to clients and when the market crashed, she just couldn’t continue to be measured by an unobtainable goal.

CREW Network Outlines Strategies for Success for Women in Commercial Real Estate - Lack of Equal Pay Contributes to Level of Dissatisfaction

Lawrence, KS – April 18, 2012 — In its latest white paper, Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) Network recommends strategies for women to overcome the pay and promotion level disparities that continue to exist in the field of commercial real estate.

The white paper, Success and Satisfaction of Women in Commercial Real Estate: Retaining Exceptional Leaders, includes a summary of responses from its interviews with 20 senior commercial real estate executives regarding select findings from CREW Network’s 2010 benchmark study, Women in Commercial Real Estate 2010. That study – part of CREW Network’s tracking of women and men in commercial real estate that began in 2005 – found that more women are entering the field of commercial real estate, but that pay and promotion levels remain obstacles.

The objective of the interviews for this white paper was to discuss and provide insight into issues related to success and satisfaction in the workplace in the hope that organizations will develop and implement plans designed to retain and promote the women among their ranks.

The interviews revealed the following misconceptions about women in commercial real estate and in the workplace in general:

·         Compensation is not as important to women as it is to men

·         Women will not take risks