2022 Women in Commercial Real Estate: Reena Patel, Cresa Boston

What advice would you offer to women getting into the CRE industry? While we’re certainly making progress, the CRE industry remains predominantly male. As such, I always encourage women to embrace the innate traits that set us apart. Women tend to be resourceful, creative, and detail-oriented. We are relationship-driven, thoughtful negotiators with excellent time management skills. Some of these qualities used to be perceived, by both men and women, as a weakness or not essential to business, but they’ve proven to be huge assets at negotiation tables and in executive suites. As we continue to strive for more representation at all levels, women should be using our natural strengths to our benefit.

Who is a woman leader you find to be inspiring and why? To risk sounding cliché as a female attorney, I am deeply inspired by Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Through countless hardships and uphill battles, she emerged as one of the most influential people in legal and social history. RBG had a way of channeling strength from every situation and exuding calmness and competence in the face of chaos. But, as serious as she was at times, she was equally humble and so, so funny. As a mom of two girls, I try to exhibit those qualities and urge them, as RBG once did, to ‘speak in your own voice.’