Real Estate Leader Spotlight Series: A conversation with Susan Curran

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

Thank you! Funnily enough, it was a happy accident. I had just joined Oracle in a Contracts and Procurement capacity after completing my MBA. I was assigned to work with the Real Estate team, supporting all things having to do with Oracle’s new Campus in Redwood Shores. This became a deep dive introduction to all aspects of Corporate Real Estate, including building design and construction, and workplace planning – I was immediately captivated!

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So when I was invited to formally join the team to support the Campus Development Team, and to do both transactions and project management nationally, I readily accepted the challenge. My managers and mentors fast-tracked me through CoreNet Global’s MCR program, and the rest is history. Although I fell into this niche, it has truly become my passion – a career that combines my creative side with my analytical side.

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Tell us about your most recent role. What functions did you oversee? How large was the CRE team? Where did the department sit within the organization?

My most recent (former) role was as Sr. Director, Global Real Estate and Workplace at Informatica, driving workplace strategy and high-impact projects worldwide. I was responsible for delivering innovative, sustainable workplaces that enhanced employee (and customer) experience while aligning with business goals. This involved both managing a substantial capital budget of $280M and delivering 71 high-profile projects across five continents, pioneering cutting-edge designs for workspaces, including offices, collaboration hubs, flex-work areas, executive briefing and customer engagement centers.

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While I was primarily responsible for global Workplace Strategy, and Design and Construction Management, I also partnered with my associates doing global Site Selection, Transaction Management, Contracts, and Dispositions. Our team was very lean and distributed, so collaboration was integral to everyone’s success, and my background as a RE generalist enabled me to provide mentoring to the global team.

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Our team initially reported to HR, then pivoted to the CFO, remaining strongly aligned with HR. Directly reporting to the C-Suite enabled us to align the real estate portfolio and workplace operations to overall business goals, with timely decision making and execution of initiatives.

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

At the time, the portfolio was approx. 1M SF across the globe, although lease expirations and dispositions due to lower space utilization were driving a downward trend. America’s HQ is based in Redwood City, with secondary larger sites in Austin and Toronto; most other sites were Sales offices and Centers of Excellence scattered throughout the Americas – New York, Chicago, Cary, Mexico City, Sao Paolo. EMEA HQ is in Dublin; several other Sales Offices were strategically distributed throughout Europe and the Middle East – Paris, London, Amsterdam, Krakow, Stuttgart/Maxdorf, Stockholm, Milan/Rome, Madrid, Jerusalem, Dubai. Our APAC portfolio included our largest global offices in Bangalore, along with several offices spread throughout Asia and Oceania – Melbourne, Sydney, Beijing, Hong Kong, Hyderabad, Chennai, Osaka, Tokyo, Singapore. For global locations with fewer than 25 headcount, we utilized networks of managed offices and coworking spaces, predominantly Regus/Spaces, for more flexibility and cost effectiveness.

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

My responsibility for workplace strategy started with a complete analysis of the existing global portfolio and office designs, and what needed to be done to create a set of global workplace guidelines that would enable the Real Estate + Workplace team to provide environments that catered to the specific needs of the employees and teams working in a particular location, as well as incorporating both the local culture and corporate culture, cohesively.

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These guidelines would become a living and constantly evolving playbook for workplace, flexing as required to changes in business strategy, work processes and styles, workplace technologies, and environmental impacts (pandemics, climate change, ESG). The playbook also guided other real estate functions and processes, including site selection strategies, operations management

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

As an intelligent data management cloud company, our tech stack coordinated with IT’s tools, which simplified usage and operations globally: Visitor check-in system, flex-desk booking system and employee location maps; occupancy and space planning program;, conference/meeting room reservation systems complete with at-room iPad panels; badge-in security system to track occupancy; facilities and IT systems for service requests; Smart building systems for optimized operations and sustainability analytics for ESG; Zoom and Teams for video teleconferencing and IM communications.

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Conferencing spaces and associated technologies were consistently updated to the latest and greatest to enable the best and most seamless user experience for both those in office and remote. Since I left INFA, I have been keeping track of the newest technologies, and was particularly impressed with the collaboration between Logitech, Steelcase and Microsoft that enables an amazing VTC experience in wireless, flexible set-ups anywhere within a workplace, as well as seamless interface between workplace tech systems.

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

Every company and CRE Leader has struggled with the same challenges post-pandemic – how to drive the RTO, how to optimize office space utilization, how to increase ROI on office space, how to deal with the hybrid and remote workforce (as it really is not going away any time soon), and how to foster the corporate culture and enable the flexible work environment to thrive.

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As we approach 5 years since the Pandemic upended our “old normal”, leaders need to recognize that the desire for flexible work and the practice of flexible work started long before the pandemic (which merely accelerated this trend). Rather than forcing mandates to try to drive employees back to the office full or part time, leaders need to focus on understanding what teams need in order to work together most effectively, and how they work together whether it be in person or remotely. By prioritizing this understanding of both team processes and individual’s needs, leaders can focus less on “place” and more on how to create a corporate culture that enhances productivity and builds high-performing teams, but not at the expense of job satisfaction and employee retention.

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This is not to say that “place” is no longer an important focus. But leaders need to change their old mindsets about physical workspace, and they need to advocate for the urgent need to provide the Capex to adapt old workspaces and create new workspaces that: enable the most effective collaboration between everyone in the hybrid work environment no matter where they are located; drive community, connection and team building; and foster innovation and creativity. When employees and leaders come back to the office, we need to ensure that the places they return to provide both the physically built environment they need to support the way they work, and to support the employee experience and cultural energy that enables individuals and teams to thrive.

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

The one thing that is always next for the industry is change – we can always count on this! And as new technologies drive faster change in everything, one of the most exciting things I see happening is the incorporation of AI into both space design and real estate to manage real estate projects and portfolios more efficiently – space planning and occupancy management, space utilization optimization, lease transactions and management, lease abstracting, tracking sustainability certifications, site selection surveys, post-occupancy surveys, benchmarking, construction services (change order tracking, RFI information), asset management and facilities service requests – the possibilities are endless.

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How can people get in touch with you?

LinkedIn.com/in/Susan-Curran-MCR or susan.curran.mcr@gmail.com