WALTHAM, MA—Boston Real Estate Times announced that Boston Globe business reporter Jon Chesto will moderate the Boston Real Estate Times’ annual Life Sciences and Pharmaceutical Facilities Summit on Friday, Feb. 21 at the Westin Hotel in Waltham, MA.
“We are excited that Mr. Chesto has agreed to moderate our Life Sciences & Pharmaceutical Facilities Summit panel,” said Upendra Mishra, publisher of Boston Real Estate Times, the organizer of the event. “Mr. Chesto is a veteran reporter who has covered Boston business and politics for more than two decades. We are looking forward to Mr. Chesto’s contribution to this exciting panel.”
To register, please click here.
Before joining the Globe in 2014, Mr. Chesto was managing editor at the Boston Business Journal. Prior to that role, he was the business editor at The Patriot Ledger in Quincy. His weekly Ledger column, “Mass. Market,” won several national awards with the Society of American Business Editors and Writers.
A graduate of Wesleyan University and Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism, he has also worked as a business reporter at the Boston Herald and as a political reporter with Ottaway Newspapers.
Other speakers at the panel (in alphabetical order) include:
Duncan Gilkey
Senior Vice President of Asset Management and Director of Leasing at The Davis Companies
Invested in over 200 real estate-related investments representing over 23 million square feet of commercial space, and approximately $6.2 billion in gross asset value, The Davis Companies recently developed Alewife Research Center, a 224,000-square-foot Class-A LEED Silver Certified laboratory building in Cambridge, MA.
As Senior Vice President of Asset Management and Director of Leasing, Mr. Gilkey is responsible for developing and implementing leasing and asset management strategies for the firm.
Mr. Gilkey has more than 24 years of experience in the management, marketing and leasing of commercial real estate. Prior to assuming his current position as Senior Vice President with TDC in 1999, he was Vice President and General Manager of Merchandise Mart Properties, a division of Vornado Realty Trust.
Prior to the acquisition by Vornado, he was President of the Boston Design Center for a TDC-affiliated company. Formerly, Mr. Gilkey was President of the Washington Design Center & Office Center, VP of Sales & Marketing for furniture manufacturer Doxey Furniture in North Carolina and previously Assistant Treasurer for Bankers Trust Company in New York City. He has a bachelor’s degree from Washington College, Maryland. Mr. Gilkey is a member of NAIOP and is a member of a National NAIOP Forum, and a member of CoreNet Global.
Lisa Strope
Vice President and Director of Research for Healthcare, Life Sciences and Senior Housing at JLL
Ms. Strope joined JLL in 2014. As the Director of Research for Healthcare, Life Sciences and Seniors Housing, Ms. Strope directs the overall research program for the three industries and strategically partners with JLL businesses and a wide range of clients to provide true market expertise.
She works with JLL’s national research team to track and analyze commercial real estate markets at both the macro and micro levels and provides unique insights, comprehensive research products, and customized analysis for corporate tenant, investor, lender, and developer clients. The team leverages extensive proprietary and external sources of economic, demographic, industry, and real estate data to identify trends, forecast future conditions, and uncover risks and opportunities in the marketplace.
Prior to JLL, Ms. Strope led the research efforts for Harvard Business School’s real estate related academic courses. She holds a B.A. in Social Economics from Cornell University and an M.B.A. from the Stern School of Business at New York University in New York. In addition, Ms. Strope is a Board Member of CREW Boston, and an Adjunct Real Estate Lecturer at Babson College.
Nick Svencer
Former Vice President of Operations at Augmenix, Inc.
Mr. Svencer served as an Operations and Development Executive with strong analytical, organizational, technology, leadership, and relationship building competencies.
Started in 2007, Augmenix has been focused on improving the outcomes of radiotherapy through the use of absorbable hydrogels. The company is using this technology to develop products that decrease unintended radiation damage to normal organs during radiation therapy and to mark soft tissue.
Prior to Augmenix, Mr. Svencer worked at Brontes Technologies, a 3M Company, Confluent Surgical, an Incept LLC Company, and Analogic Corporation. He earned a BSME and a MS in Engineering Management from Tufts University.
Jeff Tompkins, IIDA, LEED AP
Founding Partner at SGA
SGA last year unveiled “Vertical Cluster” design for life sciences companies in tight urban spaces, solving the problem of the high cost of the land and dramatically changing life sciences space. With its proven expertise in designing state-of-the-art Life Sciences facilities and eco-systems that foster entrepreneurship among researchers, venture capitalists, biopharmaceuticals, academia, and technology, SGA has joined forces with a committed group of designers, engineers, entrepreneurs, real estate developers and investors who are advancing this evolutionary change in design.
Mr. Tompkins is one of the Founding Partners of SGA. He balances the strategic direction of the interior design studio in addition to complex repositioning assignments. He works with the team leaders to develop creative yet reasonable solutions that respond to each client’s unique project objectives and expectations relative to aesthetic and programmatic needs.
Mr. Tompkins is particularly skillful at finding the “sweet spot” where design excellence, constructability, budget and schedule meet. He has helped provide holistic solutions for technology companies, financial services organizations, law firms and Fortune 1000 companies, including Autodesk, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, LogMeIn, Monotype, Communispace, EnerNOC, PUMA, and Acme/Oracle.
Here is the schedule of real estate summit:
Date: Feb. 21, 2020
Venue: Westin Hotel, Waltham, MA
7:15 am: Registration
7:15 am – 7:50 am: Continental Breakfast & Networking
7:55 am – 9:30 am: Panel discussion
9:30 am – 10:00 am: Networking.
