Mindy Korth has served in a variety of capacities during her 26-year commercial real estate career and has been on the front lines of an up-and-down industry. Korth, an executive vice president at CB Richard Ellis and this year’s Valley Partnership chair, says the advocacy role Valley Partnership plays is crucial to its members in the current recession.
A graduate of Arizona State University with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, Korth is Valley Partnership’s first chair who is an active real estate broker as a capital markets sales professional for the past 14 years. She has been on the Valley Partnership board of directors since 2007, serving as vice chair in 2010. Korth serves on boards for several other organizations, including Social Venture Partners, Channel Eight/KAET Public Television and the Discovery Triangle Development Corporation. She is also a member of Soroptimists and Arizona Commercial Real Estate Women (AZCREW), where she is a past board member.
Q: What does it mean to be an advocate for the commercial real estate industry?
Valley Partnership works to stay in touch with its real estate industry partners’ needs and to understand how local, regional, state and federal policy will affect their ability to thrive in this metropolitan area. We support those public-sector initiatives that promote the health of our industry.
Q: How important is that advocacy during these tough economic times?
Advocacy is important in all economic times. Valley Partnership was established to pool the resources of many in the real estate industry, and to address and bring awareness to the myriad of real estate-related issues that impact our community.
Q: Valley Partnership’s 2011 goals?
The board has set goals that include partner retention, new partner recruitment, outstanding programs that inform and inspire our partners, fun events, community service and most importantly, working closely with our municipal partners to support their initiatives.
Q: How will you achieve these goals?
Our board has engaged in strategic planning sessions through which we created definitive action items and a scorecard to track our progress. Our board is comprised of very talented real estate professionals who have great vision on what is needed and how Valley Partnership can serve our community. Our City/County Committee has a goal to form task forces as needed and already has created three to address and provide input on proposed policy changes. Legislative proposals are reviewed by members of our State Legislative Committee, which then forms recommendations for further action.
Q: What are the biggest challenges in 2011?
There are many controversial issues being discussed within city, county, state and federal chambers. Our role is to be the steady sounding board, bridging and partnering to promote responsible growth. We have found ourselves often asking the question “Should we take a position?” If we say “Yes,” then we ask, “How can we do this in a balanced manner?”
Q: Any advice for partners?
Get involved. Attend our events. Have fun. Create relationships and promote business-to-business among your fellow partners. If you are not familiar with advocacy and want to learn, participate in one of our advocacy committees. You may not be adept the first year, might start feeling comfortable the second and by the third year you will be surprised at what you can do.
