As an organization, IAMC fosters relationships that turn into both business partnerships and long-term friendships. The path to corporate real estate varies widely, and our members come from a variety of professional and personal backgrounds.

We thank Bill DeBoer, Director, Corporate Properties & Facilities Management at Kohler Co. for sharing his!

“The events of 1987 were over in a matter of minutes. But it took us years to recover. That sort of impact is something companies can easily underestimate.”

The speaker is Brett Manning, senior VP of Global Corporate Services for Silent-Aire in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The “events” he refers to were actually a single F4 tornado that ripped through Edmonton, packing top winds of 260 mph. Included in the estimated US$647 million in damages was the Silent-Aire global headquarters. “It wiped out the facility.” July 31 is still referred to as Black Friday by the Edmonton community.

But Manning is a big believer in lessons learned, and as the provider of hyperscale cooling and modular data centers mounted a global growth initiative, leadership baked into those plans an increasingly robust disaster preparedness and recovery program. “The tornado shaped and molded how we guide our operations,” he states. “We know now what starting over is like.”

Fort Worth will provide the backdrop to two major milestones for IAMC members when we gather there for our Spring Forum, June 19 to 23. For one, this is – obviously – the first time members will meet face-to-face and in-person for more than a year. The second is a lineup of educational sessions and special events geared to open dialogues about business and success in the New Normal.

“We’re all overworked and stressed, being pushed and pulled in many directions, and trying to read the same muddled tea leaves.”

So, Brian Morgan, director of global real estate for Linde in Danbury, CT, summarizes the understandable post-COVID stress of corporate IAMC members everywhere. 

Community with fellow members is helpful, he says, and so he occasionally turns to Cornerstone, IAMC’s membership community portal (https://cornerstone.iamc.org/home), providing platforms for discussions on a wide variety of hot-button topics in addition to a range of other customizable features. 

COVID-19 hasn’t been the only disruptor of the commercial real estate experience. Years before the pandemic, the Financial Accounting Standards Board began tinkering with the way leases--meaning ALL leases--from real estate to equipment--are reported. The changes to corporate balance sheets sent the industry scrambling to be in compliance, even forcing corporate real estate executives not only to speak to, but often report to, departments that previously had remained foreign to them.

As IAMC 2020 Virtual Forum attendees heard in the workshop “ASC 842 Roadmap and Lessons from the Trenches” (which was among the most popular sessions), the road to compliance is indeed bumpy, but eventually, the path becomes more navigable.