Commercial Investment Real Estate May/June 2016 | Page 14

CCIM
Q&A
p
Career
Changer
by Sara S. Patterson
Peter Stergos, CCIM, made the leap from working with the client at
Cushman & Wakefeld to becoming the client at United Technolo-
gies Corp. Four years after he made the career switch, Stergos is
heading up Real Estate Transactions and Strategy for the $57.9
billion company.
“Not many commercial real estate brokers
move from the service side to become a com-
pany employee,” Stergos says. “Looking back,
I made the right decision.”
UTC has two major businesses: aerospace
and commercial and industrial products,
which it sells primarily in the United States,
Europe, and Asia-Pacifc. For UTC, Stergos
has traveled worldwide, gained management
experience, and completed global commer-
cial real estate transactions. He discusses his
experiences with Commercial Investment
Real Estate. properties for fve UTC business units. Dur-
ing the past four years, my scope of trans-
action responsibility expanded globally. My
position has morphed into the global real
estate transaction lead, in which I manage
a team of regional managers handling hun-
dreds of transactions annually. Although
UTC is headquartered in Farmington,
Conn., it operates in 140 countries, so over
the years I have traveled extensively to meet
with suppliers and internal clients in difer-
ent locations. Te move has been a career
changer.
CIRE: Why did you decide to move
from working on the UTC account as
a C&W employee to working directly
for UTC? CIRE: How did your experience at
C&W prepare you for your current
position at UTC?
Stergos: When the UTC director of global
real estate asked me to join the company as
the real estate manager for UTC’s opera-
tions in Europe, it seemed like a great ft.
I knew how to navigate through the UTC
corporate structure successfully, which
would make the transition smoother. I’d be
working with the same players, although my
viewpoint — and the actual deliverables —
would change. Europe was attractive, since I
enjoy traveling and exploring new cultures.
My frst job involved managing the Euro-
pean portfolio of commercial real estate

May | June | 2016
Stergos: C&W is a true commercial real
estate company with the resources neces-
sary for its employees to succeed. Trough
the transaction manager position, I gained
a 360-degree view of the corporate com-
mercial real estate transaction, furthering
my appreciation of what it takes to close a
deal. At UTC, I ofen have to set the expec-
tation with business units that commercial
real estate is not a commodity, which can be
liquidated instantly. Also I have to manage
relationships internally. My experience with
the C&W team prepared me well for both
these areas of responsibility.
Peter Stergos, CCIM
CIRE: How do your responsibilities at
UTC compare to those at C&W?
Stergos: At C&W, my focus was primarily
on transactions within a specifc region and
dealing with a few business units at UTC.
Te job was well-defned, and I understood
the scope of getting the job done and when
the points of escalation would occur.
As a UTC employee, I have increased
responsibility and a big-picture perspective of
the global real estate business. Te position is
more about governance and developing stra-
tegic alliances between business units. I work
with general managers at local UTC loca-
tions who do not make real estate decisions
every day. I function as a liaison between the
business units and internal functions, which
includes managing employees.
CIRE: What is advantageous about
these changes for your commercial
real estate career?
Stergos: Being involved in commercial real
estate outside the U.S., I‘ve gained the expe-
rience and understanding of how the indus-
try operates internationally. Te diferences
are immense, from commissions to diferent
cultures and laws to client negotiations.
For example, in the U.S., the laws for com-
mercial real estate are the similar in 50 states.
Internationally, the laws and regulations
Commercial Investment Real Estate