Bio
Paul T. McDermott was elected to the Board of Trustees and named President and Chief Executive Officer of WashREIT in October 2013. Prior to joining WashREIT, he was Senior Vice President and Managing Director for Rockefeller Group Investment Management Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi Estate Co., Ltd. from June 2010 to September 2013. Prior to joining The Rockefeller Group, he served from 2006 to 2010 as Principal and Chief Transaction Officer at PNC Realty Investors. Between 2002 and 2006, Mr. McDermott held two primary officer roles at Freddie Mac — Chief Credit Officer of the Multifamily Division and Head of Multifamily Structured Finance and Affordable Housing. From 1997 to 2002, he served as Head of the Washington, D.C. Region for Lend Lease Real Estate Investments.
Show Notes
- Paul joined in 2013 and the company was called WRIT and wanted to triage the portfolio from five asset classes with various product types (7:00)
- Had to make tough decisions (8:30)
- Too many asset classes
- No geographical diversity
- Sequestration of the Defense Department had impact (9:20)
- Several immediate challenges including derisking the portfolio (10:30)
- Wanted company to have a research arm for the company (10:50)
- Hired Grant Montgomery to lead research effort to make decisions with their portfolio (11:10)
- Multiple asset classes are very tough in the REIT space as investors want “pure play” so they could determine their own investment allocation (11:50)
- Change the narrative of the company (12:30)
Origins
- Loved challenges and competing with siblings as the youngest (14:15)
- Started swimming at 5 yrs. old and being very competitive (Glenwood Pool, Silver Spring, MD) (15:00)
- Attended St. John’s Evangelist School and subsequently St. John’s High School in a military setting (15:30)
- Swimming is a disciplined sport- Swam all the way through college (16:15)
- Played all sports as a kid, but enjoyed swimming the most (17:15)
- Grades were key in his house growing up (17:40)
- Parents were huge influence (18:00)
- Dad was a police officer in Boston and joined Naval Intelligence here in DC (18:10)
- Dad wanted him to go into Intelligence
- His Dad traveled considerably with his job (19:30)
- Mother was a great influence, as well. Strict disciplinarian. (19:45)
- Shepard College/University (21:10)
- Swam there and studied business (21:30)
- Enjoyed his experience
- Story about his swim coach (21:50)
- Father wanted him to be an Intelligence agent, but he became a Staff Accountant and lost his Dad and it changed his life (24:10)
- Decided to go to graduate school at night (25:30)
Real Estate Career
- Joined Centennial Development Company (his first real estate Job) (25:45)
- Entrepreneurial development company primarily doing suburban office projects on the Dulles Toll Road mar...
