Real Estate Leader Spotlight Series: A conversation with Lauren Falkner

Lauren, thanks for joining us. What initially led you to Corporate Real Estate / Workplace?

Thank you for having me! I followed my curiosity to get here. My career began in office administration and HR. About 15 years ago I got the chance to co-lead a lease transaction and capital build. It was only about 20k RSF, but at the time it felt huge and complicated. I had a lot to learn, and it forced me to be uncompromisingly curious at every meeting, whether it was on a broker tour, an OAC, or an executive briefing. To this day I can recall minute details about the transaction and subsequent build. I got hooked and have been lucky enough to work in the CRE&W world ever since.

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Tell us about your current role. What functions do you oversee? How large is the CRE/W team? Where does the department sit within the organization?

I am the Senior Manager, Global Corporate Real Estate at ZoomInfo. The role sits at the intersection of strategy and execution: I spend time working on global strategy, while also getting the chance to run projects on the ground. I pull a lot from my knowledge of portfolio management, transactions, capital project management, and finance. I am delighted that I also get ample opportunity to work with the Facilities, Workplace Experience, and IT teams too. I feel deeply connected to the work at hand, and to the long-term goals of the business I support.

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Prior to ZI, I oversaw a 20+ person CRE&W and physical safety team, reporting up through the Finance org. It was an incredible experience, not least because many of the people I worked with professionally have become some of my dearest friends personally. Related, if I have one piece of advice for folks in this field it is this: find a fantastic mentor, and if possible, find a fantastic mentor in Finance.

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Tell us about your portfolio. What does it look like?

We’ve got some incredible projects happening now. In 2025 we’ll have 366k RSF come online in Vancouver, WA on the thriving waterfront. In the past year new offices have been spun up in Chennai and Bangalore, and a new build was completed in Ra’anana, Israel. We have additional major offices scattered across the US and EMEA. The overall portfolio size is in the higher six figures RSF spread across a dozen or so locations. It’s been a whirlwind time to join in the best possible way.

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Could you share a story of a project or initiative you spearheaded that had a major impact on how your team manages the portfolio?

I spent a lot of time with this question because the only answer that felt relevant to ‘today’ is the story of my experience leading a CRE&W org through the pandemic, and how it informed my approach to CRE now. I think that story is already so well told; my own does not add much more to that conversation. But when I think back on every major initiative I’ve helmed, including shifting from a desk-based to an activity-based design standard and leading a global real estate portfolio optimization, they all had one thing in common: they were process driven from the start. It's not flashy, it just works.

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I am a huge fan of playbooks, so much so that I guarantee you anyone reading this who has worked with me is nodding along (or rolling their eyes – I get it team). I am a broken record about having a playbook for each of the pillars of a CRE&W organization: transaction management, capital build and design standards, facilities, events, EH&S, and developing/reporting on metrics throughout. A playbook should be a living document that adapts and scales alongside the organization. Understand the culture of your organization, and be process driven in support of the work that you do. That’s the secret to being impactful.

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What is your real estate tech stack? Are there any favorite processes or tools you think would be interesting for others to learn from?

Any tool that simplifies how to report on the true cost of occupancy is a tool worth investing in, full stop. Prior to 2020 CRE was often in the top two lines of a company’s P&L, usually right behind payroll. In 2024 it’s probably slipped to 3rd or 4th, but it’s still huge. CRE teams who are not able to measure and report on their true cost of occupancy, a.k.a. their utilization, are in the unenviable position of having to make real estate decision on limited data, or worse, a hunch. The ROI on tools to measure utilization pays off in proportion to the size of the portfolio.

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Some of the enterprise level IWMS systems have incredible potential – a system that integrates lease admin, cost of occupancy, sensor data, and layers in ESG reporting capabilities? I’m paying attention. But the caution I give to teams weighing this kind of implementation is to be sure you have enough internal resources to support it. It takes a lot of coordinated work – dare I say process – to stand up an enterprise IWMS. That’s to say nothing of the six-figure cost. Sometimes it makes sense to go with the out of the box solution.

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Last thing if I can name drop a specific product: I recently had the opportunity to sit in on a Logitech video room system demo and whoever is working in that R&D team deserves a raise. Tell me if this sounds familiar: you dial into a meeting where a group of folks are in a conference room, and you can’t hear half of what they are saying or tell who is saying it. Meanwhile you can see your own blown-up reflection mirrored back at you in the glass wall reflecting the tv screen. Traditional VTC infrastructure has not adapted to the needs of distributed workforces. This system equalizes that experience – you can hear everyone as if you are on a 1:1 call, and the camera (maybe cameras?) identify and zoom in on multiple speakers at once. It was awesome.

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What challenges do you see in the industry today? How do you think leaders need to evolve to address this?

It’s no secret we need to redefine the ROI around CRE&W. I live in Portland (Oregon) and hear a lot of ‘the office is dead’ noise, but I see that as reductive and inaccurate. The office is evolving. Creating spaces for people to do effective work has always been a discipline in progress; the thing that’s more of a challenge now is the pace of change. We need to stop defining the ‘perfect office’ as one that attracts folks back 5 days a week. Never mind that in 2019 most ‘in office’ companies I know had an average peak occupancy of 60-65%. There is a sweet spot between intentional in-person gathering time, and the flexibility to work from non-traditional spaces. One of the big challenges I see in the industry today is finding that balance without over or under indexing on leased space to do so.

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Also, there needs to be a clear ROI for workers to come into offices. Nothing is worse than telling people they must be on site, only for them to be greeted by a sea of empty desks. I once had someone who’s opinion I value describe the office as ‘a beautiful mausoleum’. It stuck with me over the years and captures the challenge I see today. In my opinion if you ask people to come back, you need to ensure the places they are coming back to are alive with energy, and built to support the way they work.

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What’s next for the industry? What are you most excited about?

A lot! But in line with the above, I am most excited for people to come together again whether in offices, at offsites, or on well-built video conferencing systems.

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How can people get in touch with you?

Connect with and/or message me on LinkedIn. I love to talk shop and am always happy to meet for a virtual or in-person coffee.