On November 1^st, as part of the Boardroom After Dark dinner series, 9 ULI members had the pleasure of dining with Melinda Ellis Evers, Managing Principal and co-founder of Ellis Partners. Boardroom After Dark brings together a small group of ULI members for an intimate dinner with some of the Bay Area’s most influential real estate professionals and leaders. At this particular dinner, the 9 female attendees represented a variety of skill sets and facets within the real estate spectrum including architects, attorneys, bankers, and asset managers.

ULI attendees enjoyed hearing about Ms. Evers career path. Ms. Evers started her career at A.R. Jarvis & Company and spent seven years in acquisitions and portfolio management with Grubb & Ellis Realty Advisers, before co-founding Ellis Partners. Ms. Evers talked candidly about how she was the only woman in the room for a long time. So for her to be successful and build credibility, she needed to focus on building her technical skills and her professional network.  She encouraged us to build a network early and pick people to be part of our network who we think are rising stars and who we enjoy talking to. This became a big focus of our dinner!

Ms. Evers had some great advice for the attendees on work/life balance. She shared that at different points in your life, you will have different priorities. It is ok to take a step sideways in your career when you have young kids as long as you build credibility early and maintain your network to enable a smoother transition back to the workforce if you choose to leave for a while. She encouraged the attendees to not be afraid to ask for things whether it be a salary increase, additional responsibilities or a flexible work schedule. She also emphasized the importance of being a rainmaker while continuing to be exceptional at the actual work. Ms. Evers asked us to envision where we want to be at age 50 and encouraged us to make career choices with that vision in mind.

Other highlights from our dinner included:

• A discussion on ways to retain women in the workplace.
• The importance of creating a diverse team in terms of gender, age and skill set.
• Sharing ideas on how to effectively manage our teams, retain talent, and create the right culture within our companies.

Following the dinner, several of the attendees met for lunch to continue the conversation and further strengthen the network we had created at our dinner!

By Chinar Mithani Starck