ON THE HEELS OF SUCCESS

For the last three years, Az Business magazine has published its “50 Most Influential Women in Business” list. It’s the most popular issue of the year and though it has always included a handful of commercial real estate professionals, AZRE deserved a list of its own. So, that’s what we did (pg. 30).

It was a difficult list to whittle down, but we think this inaugural group of 20 professionals will set the stage for years to come. They’ve already completely changed AZRE’s history as not just the first women on the cover, but the first people ever featured on a cover in the magazine’s 10-year history.

These women fought the early morning traffic for AZRE’s cover shoot at the Tempe Center for the Arts in preparation for this issue. On my drive into Tempe that morning, I was able to associate nearly every woman I was meeting to a building I passed or by the shadows cast by cranes, workers in hard hats and the skeletal frames of new developments. Many of these projects were announced less than a year ago and are a testament to not only the buoyant state of commercial real estate in Arizona, but of women’s roles in steering that ship. AZCREW’s members (pg. 49) and the infographic on the next page will back my claims up.

I also had the pleasure of telling the stories of two companies celebrating 40th and 50th anniversaries — Interstate Mechanical (IMCOR, pg. 65) and Buesing Corp. (pg. 97), respectively. We also profiled the projects of the Arizona Builders’ Alliance (pg. 81) and the most impressive interior designs in the Southwest, according to this year’s IIDA PRIDE Awards (pg. 44).

I hope you enjoy this issue — whether it’s on a break at a construction site or pool-side on summer vacation.

See you in September!