IIJournals JPM-Special Real Estate Article Collection | Page 18

bolder. Following her as a role model, I took risks that
I may not have normally taken. As a female and as a
researcher, I thank her for making the initial crack in
our industry’s glass ceiling.
—Asieh Mansour
When I arrived in the world of pension real estate
in January 1992, Susan was one of the first people I met.
With the collapse of the real estate market, within the
first month of taking over the IBM Retirement Fund’s
$2 billion real estate portfolio, I was confronted by an
IBM treasurer who asked me to justify why IBM was
invested in real estate! In a slight panic, I turned to
Susan for help in addressing the question. Needless to
say, the story we created was rigorous and compelling,
real estate survived as an asset class, and IBM signed
on to the precu