CREW Up: CREW’s New CEO Is Pushing the Mission Forward

Alison Beddard has a degree in nutrition and dietetics, and was always encouraged by her family to go into the sciences field. But everyone kept telling her she would be great in sales, so she gave it a try and took on a brokerage job.

“It was very scary,” she recalled. “The first year, I made $6,000, but I knew I was going to be good at it.”

And for three years, she only grew. Then the Great Financial Crisis of 2008 hit, and she lost everything she had built. That’s when she found CREW Seattle—right when she was looking for support and guidance to broaden her professional network.

During her 20-year tenure with Cushman & Wakefield, she transitioned from brokerage to leadership. Most recently, she served as the Managing Principal for the firm’s Washington and Oregon markets. “I’m so proud that I’ve always been willing to walk through fire, to say I’m going to trust whatever is on the other side, I’m going to be better for it,” she told Commercial Property Executive’s Laura Valean in the latest CREW Up podcast episode.

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LISTEN TO: Making the Case for DEI

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Beddard was recently named CEO of CREW Network and CREW Network Foundation, after previously serving as CREW Network President in 2017.

“Personally, I feel like I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to do kind of my life’s work, to bring my passion and my business side together to really impact generations of talent in a way that creates lasting change in our lifetimes,” she said.

Here’s what else Beddard told Valean in this podcast episode:

• What drew her to this industry (0:53)
• What she’s most proud of (3:27)
• Beddard’s vision for the organization (5:28)
• Lessons from the past (6:48)
• Building on the legacy of her predecessors (8:15)
• Why being a practitioner first helps in leadership (9:17)
• Biggest challenges she anticipates (10:35)
• Evolving to support women (12:44)
• What success looks like for her in this role (14:11)
• Advice to young women entering CRE (15:20)

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