Welcome to Episode 59 of our podcast, Courageous Conversations, hosted by Leanne Pilkington.
In this episode, our guest is Linda Rudd, Partner and Head of Asset Management Services at Knight Frank Australia. Linda talks about entering the commercial real estate space, what leading as a woman is like within her industry, how she ensures her opinions and thoughts are heard without conflict, what doing an international MBA was like and her tips for having those courageous conversations with yourself and others around you.
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00:30 – An introduction to Linda’s role at Knight Frank
01:30 – What managing a large-scale team is like; now and before the pandemic
02:30 – Despite being large in numbers, there’s a sense of connectedness like a smaller business team
03:30 – How Linda started in real estate; taking a gap year after school, working in reception for an architecture firm and agreeing with her Dad to study property economics
05:00 – Entering the commercial property field with CBRE (working in Sydney, then in London and back to Sydney)
06:30 – Connecting with previous colleagues who now worked at Knight Frank after a 3 month break
07:30 – Being a woman in leadership in commercial real estate, and what it’s like being a Board member
08:00 – Working hard and being noticed; if you don’t have that kind of support from your team (regardless of whether they’re male or female), it’s possibly time to look or work elsewhere.
09:00 – Rod Leaver’s push for diversity within the Knight Frank Board
10:00 – “Maybe your opinion or point of view might not always be the one that’s taken, but it’s important to share it.”
10:50 – How Linda navigates difficult conversations that aren’t going in an agreeable direction; viewing it as “putting other people’s hats on” to understand their differing point of views.
13:00 – Doing an international MBA with the University of Sydney and the global mindset this gave her for her career
15:00 – Linda’s favourite MBA placement at UCLA in Los Angeles; the access to lecturers such as the person behind Uber’s algorithm
15:45 – Linda’s other memorable placement experience in India for her MBA
17:00 – Knight Frank’s predictions of a ‘Black Swan’ event and how the corporation conducts research behind this (how this relates to the current pandemic)
19:00 – The changing mindsets around working from home and the way in which city environments will be used by its occupants.
20:40 – Will commercial spaces convert to residential? Linda’s thoughts on this.
22:00 – Linda’s tips for having courageous conversations with herself and with other people