CoreNet Global New England president’s message: Annual Awards of Excellence - by Maureen Rystrom

Our Annual Awards of Excellence took place on April 27^th at Westin Seaport, and with 400 in attendance, it was such a fabulous evening celebrating our 2022 Chapter’s Leadership and Project Award Winners, as well as the graduating class of the 2022 Cohort of the Young Leaders Professional Development Program. The evening couldn’t have happened without our wonderful sponsors, including our Premier Sponsor, Margulis Perruzzi Architects. Of course, special thanks to our additional sponsors, Citizens, CBRE, Cresa, Lee Kennedy & Integrated at Work, JLL, C&W Services, COR and Miller Knoll, McCarter & English, J. Calnan & Associates, VVA Project & Cost Managers, Gensler, and New England Real Estate Journal as our Media Partner.

2023 Award Categories and Winners:

• Global End User Leadership Award - Jill Zunshine, Takeda Pharmaceuticals.

• Americas End User Leadership Award - Bill Callahan, Seismic.

• Global Service Provider Leadership Award - Iramis Luz Audet, Perkins Eastman.

• Americas Service Provider Leadership Award - Marc Margulies, Margulies Perruzzi Architects.

• Young Leader Leadership Award - Cerise Marcela, CBRE.

• CoreNet New England Volunteer Hall of Fame Award - Sandra Gucciardi, C&W Services.

Best New Workplace Awards: 2022

• Small (<75,000 s/f) - The Edge Center for Innovation (Pega).

• Large (>75,000 s/f) - Verizon at The Hub.

• Best New Workplace Awards: Outside of New England - PepsiCo Canadian HQ

In addition to the Leadership and Workplace awards, I was thrilled to honor Cynthia Keliher, Partner at McCarter & English, with The Doug Noonan President’s Award at our April 27 Awards of Excellence. This award honors an individual or company for their extraordinary contributions to CoreNet Global and our New England Chapter. The award is named in honor and memory of our dear friend, Doug Noonan, an incredible champion of our organization, a Past President of the New England Chapter, and a President’s Award recipient himself. As a leading corporate real estate attorney, Cynthia has left her stamp on nearly every major CRE transaction in the greater Boston area and beyond and leads with kindness and respect. She has mentored countless CRE professionals of all ages and represents everything I admire in a leader, a CRE professional, a CoreNet member, and a friend. 

Finally, congratulations to the 2022 Cohort of the Young Leaders Professional Development Program, who graduated in front of 400 colleagues and peers at our Awards of Excellence! The Young Leaders Professional Development Program is led by Sarah Abrams with Iron Mountain, Chris Petryshin with VVA Project & Cost Managers, and James Mandeville with CBRE. The graduates include:

• Gabrielle Bower, associate project manager, Iron Mountain account at CBRE;

• Elizabeth Eromin, director, leasing & transactions at Fidelity Investments.

• Jasper Gondhi, senior project manager at VVA Project & Cost Managers.

• Anie Grunwald, director, client solutions at CBRE.

• John Huntington, account manager at Creative Office Resources.

• Katherine Kenney, project manager at Northstar and Project & Real Estate Services.

• Zofia Kotecka, occupancy logistics project manager at Liberty Mutual.

• Trevor MacDonald, assistant project manager at STV Inc.

• Blake Reynolds, senior operations manager at CBRE.

• August Russo, global real estate portfolio analyst at Iron Mountain.

• Brenna Spingler, director, future of work consulting at JLL.

• Emily Wadman, director, workplace experience & facilities at Toast Inc.

Maureen Rystrom is the president/chair of CoreNet Global New England Chapter and vice president of marketing | partner at J. Calnan & Associates.