Mashore tackles top post at Cushman & Wakefield: Derrick Mashore, executive managing director, Cushman & Wakefield

Real Estate Weekly, Feb 2, 2005 by Daniel Geiger

When Cushman & Wakefield's Derrick Mashore was a star outside linebacker for Duke in the mid 80s at the end of one of the final game of his senior season against Maryland, he met an old friend and fellow linebacker, Neal Olkewicz, on the field.

Both had had outstanding high school football careers in Pennsylvania, playing together on the all-state team. And both had gone o to enjoy continued success in college. What was next?

"I asked Neal what his plans were," Mashore said. "He told me that he was going to go play football in the Canadian league and I told him I was going to Columbia law school."

At the time, going to a top-10 law school versus the prospect of attempting to claw onto an NFL team's roster via a trial by ice in Canada's tundra seemed like an easy choice, especially considering that lawyers could make as much or more money than pro players in those days. But then Olkewicz surprised everybody and, after two years in Canada, was picked up by the Washington Redskins and went on to enjoy a near decade-long NFL career.

In recalling the story, Mashore lightheartedly jokes whether he made the right decision in selecting law school. "When I speak to Neal, I kid with him about how much smarter than me he was," Mashore said.

If there was any doubt regarding the wisdom of Mashore's career choice however, it must have been squelched once and for all when he was recently voted onto Cushman & Wakefield's board of directors.

One of the first African Americans voted onto the board of directors for a real estate services firm, Mashore's appointment was the culmination of a career of excellence in real estate.

Although he started in law, Mashore quickly found his way into consulting work. He joined C&W it the early 90s in the wake of the savings and loan crisis, a time when the demand for real estate consulting was beginning to gain steam. That demand continued to grow and today is an indispensable service enlisted by major corporations.

As an executive managing director of client solutions at C&W, Mashore has forged relationships with some the world's biggest corporations, expositing to them the benefits of having an experienced real estate services firm like C&W manage their typically large real estate portfolios.

"The real estate services business evolved and I was at the front of that change," Mashore said. "You look at a firm like IBM and they used to just strictly make hardware, but now the have a huge client services arm that helps companies integrate technology into their business and find technology solutions. That's the same kind of thing that has happened in the real estate services industry."

"I show companies how Cushman & Wakefield can better manage their properties, find the best space that's suited for them and really plan and execute their real estate strategy. We basically show them what they ought to be doing with all their real estate, something that isn't their core business, but is ours."

Now that Mashore is on the board of directors, he plays an even bigger role in the firm, helping to decide on C&W's long-term strategy and goals, weighing on such things as whether the company wants to expand into secondary domestic markets or prime overseas locations.

One agenda that has been especially important to both Mashore and C&W president and CEO, Bruce Mosler, is to incorporate more women and minorities into the commercial real estate business. Under Mosler's and Mashore's leadership, Cushman & Wakefield helped organize a partnership with about a dozen firms nationally that are either women or minority-owned to form Concordis, the first national real estate firm of its kind.

C&W's relationship to the new company is strictly a partnership agreement that promises mutual referrals and C&W has already done a lot to pass along significant chunks of business with such firms as Hewlett Packard, Sears, Bank One, and Discovery Communications. "We have to reflect the diversity of our clients," Mashore said.

"We also need the best of the best, regardless of race or sex, and both Cushman & Wakefield and Concordis offer that."

Mashore is married and has a son and daughter, both of whom share their father's talent for athletics and are high school basketball stars.

"I love football, but with what it did to my knees, I'm glad they chose basketball."