Boston, Ma CBRE/New England’s Kerry Hawkins, first vice president of suburban advisory & transaction services, has been named a Woman of FIRE by Banker & Tradesman. Women of FIRE is an annual award recognizing key female players in the local FIRE (Finance, Insurance and Real Estate) sectors. The seventh annual Women of FIRE award celebrates the best and the brightest women in their industries.

Hawkins has been in the real estate business since 1999, concentrating her efforts in the Metro North area along the I-93/Rte. 128, Rte. 3, I-495 and southern New Hampshire office and R&D markets. 

She is the leasing agent for over 2.75 million s/f of property on behalf of owners in the suburban marketplace including such trophy office parks as Andover Landing at Brickstone Sq. (1 million s/f); The Center at Corporate Dr. (500,000 s/f); Dunham Ridge (300,000 s/f); and New England Business Center (280,000 s/f), and has a particular skill-set in the repositioning of class A office parks. In addition to her transactional work, Hawkins is an active member of several industry and civic organizations, including serving on the executive committee for NAIOP, various committees for CREW, and the Commercial Brokers Association. Hawkins serves as the treasurer of the board of directors of the Good Shepherd School, and volunteers as a language translator at Harvest on Vine, a neighborhood food pantry. Hawkins resides in Charlestown with her husband Rob and three small children.

“As the underrepresented gender in these industries, women work particularly hard to rise to the top and achieve excellence on a day-to-day basis. I am pleased to announce that the nomination process has brought us an exemplary class of winners for this year’s Women of FIRE. Whether executive, innovator, philanthropist or all of the above, their powerful influence is being felt in some crucial sectors of our state’s economy. Please join us in giving them their well-earned praise,” said Timothy Warren Jr., CEO of The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman.

The following 15 women were named this year’s Women of FIRE:

• Robin Adams, associate, CBT

• Lori Chaput, senior vice president of personal lines, Partners Insurance Group LLC

• Susan Elsbree, vice president, InkHouse

• Karen Fish-Will, CEO, Peabody Properties

• Melissa Fish-Crane, COO, Peabody Properties

• Wendy Gettleman, VP of facilities management and real estate, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

• Elizabeth Gruber, SVP of community development banking, Bank of America Merrill Lynch

• Kerry Olson Hawkins, first vice president, CBRE/New England

• Diana Kelly, executive director, FOCUS Inc.

• Karen McShea, vice president, director of real estate development, Lupoli Companies

• Gwendolen Noyes, senior VP, Oaktree/Greenstaxx

• Sheryl Simon, principal, Benoit Mizner Simon & Co.

• Martine Taylor, executive director, South Shore Habitat for Humanity

• Lyn Tran, assistant comptroller, City of Lawrence

• Margaret Wood, project director, Pinck & Co. Inc.