Marjorie Tsang is a Visiting
Scholar with the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International
Studies on issues relating to financing climate-resilient real assets projects
worldwide, an initiative on behalf of the UN Secretary-General. She is a
board member of the USAA Real Estate Company and an active member of WX (New
York Women Executives in Real Estate), having served on the WX, Inc., and WX
Charitable Fund, Ltd. boards and serving on the Philanthropy Committee
currently. Marjorie is an instructor for the REAP-NY program.
Marjorie served as a
senior investment officer at the New York State Common Retirement Fund, the
third largest public pension fund in the United States. From 1999-2011,
she was the Assistant Comptroller for Real Estate Investments with investment
and asset management responsibilities for the Fund’s $9 billion Real Estate
portfolio. From September 2011 through August 2012, she served as the
Interim Chief Investment Officer. Until her retirement from the Fund in 2014,
she covered strategic initiatives including the Real Assets portfolio, asset
allocation and the Environmental Social Governance program. Marjorie
joined the Office of the New York State Comptroller in October 1993 as
Assistant Counsel for Real Estate Investments and later assumed legal
responsibility for the Fund in all asset classes. She received her BA
from Yale University and her JD from Columbia Law School.
Marjorie and I met like a lot of us in the institutional real
estate world via attending conferences such as PREA (Pension Real Estate Association). We’d cross paths periodically and catch up on
things. As I got to know Marjorie better
I learned what a great advocate she has been, throughout her entire career, for
women and younger people in the real estate industry - such an admirable trait to be so giving of
your time to others.
Q. How did you
get your start in the commercial real estate industry?
A. My first
employer encouraged rotating through different departments. That was an
important criteria for me when evaluating law firms. I thought I was
headed to a banking law career but the work didn’t excite me. Tax, trusts
& estates and corporate law didn’t fit well either. I found that I could
learn and apply the law but the passion was missing. In contrast, by
the time I got through a month of my real estate rotation, everything
clicked. I loved my colleagues, the clients, the work, the responsibility
that was given to me as a young professional and the sense of accomplishment
after a workout or closing. And as all real estate practitioners
know, real estate provides something wonderfully tangible, as
well as its connection to people.
Q. What advice
would you give to someone who’s been in the industry for a short time or a
student looking to get her or his start?
A. We all have to take a certain amount of risk in our
lives. That may involve taking on a project that you don’t want, working with
someone who terrifies you or going back to school when there are so many
demands on your life. In the end, it will enhance your options -- opening up
different paths that you could never have imagined.
My life example of this risk-taking issue
comes from my first career transition. After practicing law in
firms for several years, I answered a New York Times ad for a real estate
lawyer and joined the New York Common Retirement Fund. I spent a
few years leading the real estate legal department, and then was
promoted, against my will, to be Investments Counsel for all of the pension
fund's asset classes. I didn't believe that I could learn beyond real
estate, and I didn't want to; but the general counsel said I had no choice.
I surprised myself by absorbing new fields of business, different
terminology, conflicting policies and meeting people from vastly different
backgrounds. It was great. Having been inspired by this shake-up, I
felt a need to do something new but to return to real estate. I saw
that an asset management position would be opening up. I
wondered, “Can I do that job? I have a JD, not an MBA.” After endless
self-doubts and debates with myself, I thought, "OK, let's give it a
shot." I threw my hat in the ring. I had to persuade key
decision-makers, including the Trustee, Carl McCall, that I could serve
the pension fund, the retirees and beneficiaries -- as a business
person, not a lawyer -- managing the real estate portfolio for, what
was then, the second largest public pension fund in the country.
That career risk paid off in multiples. Never in a million
years -- when I was in junior high school, when I aspired to be a lawyer -- did
I ever imagine that I would be the CIO of a huge pension fund.
As I encourage everyone -- including myself -- you
have no idea what 10 years may bring. Take the meeting, read the article,
accept the nightmare project, invite someone to join you for lunch, take on a
pro bono assignment, speak up even if you are the contrarian (but be
well-reasoned). Try on something new for size before telling yourself it
can't work for you.
Q. As you look
back on your career is there anything you wish you had done differently?
If so, what?
A. For the most part I would do it all over again because
I wouldn’t want to miss the people I met along the way. I do wish I had
taken my own advice -- to take more risk early in my career, visit
different cities, volunteer for projects out of my comfort
zone -- because every single task/assignment/trip reveals something
new. This is my lesson even today: to do as much as I can, but not make
myself crazy either.
Q. Who have
been the major influences on your career? How? Why?
A. I’m sure
everyone tells you that’s a very hard question and I put a lot of thought into
this. There are just so many. Here are three people who stand out and I
realize I'm clearly missing some very important folks.
My father Robert Tsang, who is a first generation
Chinese–American, didn’t have a chance to go to college. He was
an entrepreneur and got involved in different business ventures and
community activities. He dragged me and my siblings along
everywhere. From the earliest memories he said to me, "You are
going to be working and you can do whatever you want. You better work hard and
you just have to do the best you can.” He was the kind of parent who left a
list of potential colleges on the kitchen table to review over breakfast.
Or, he would hear me talking on the phone setting up an interview and
after I’d hung up he’d bark, “Call them back and do that call over.”
He demanded high standards through tackling new challenges and never
settling.
Another big
influencer is a law firm partner, Steve Buchman, because he told me the truth.
He told me when I messed up, missed an opportunity or dropped the ball. As hard
as that was to hear, it was couched in how I could reach the next rung if I
were more aware of my impact. I needed to hear the critiques because it
forced me to step up my game since I wanted to do a good job on behalf of
our clients. He supported me when I was treated unfairly by coaching me
to stand up for myself. I’m still grateful to him and try to celebrate
his birthday with him every year. Steve was also a big booster and fan of our
clients. I got to watch - through him - how to be not
only a lawyer, but a solid corporate citizen and worthy friend.
And, then there was the irrepressible Alice Connell -
whom we all miss tremendously (Alice died of a brain tumor in early 2017 at age
70). Alice and her gritty/gracious attitude, her can-do spirit. She taught me
by example and often invited me to programs to open my eyes to new
business challenges. There wasn't anything that Alice wouldn't
tackle and persuade others to follow if it were a noble endeavor.
Alice-isms -- and the way she enunciated them - encourage me still,
when things appear dire and I hope they will improve. "Dear, hope is
not a strategy!"
