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Thais Galli

Thais Galli

Managing Director, Innovation

Tishman Speyer

Chad Phillips

Chad Phillips

Head of US Office Sector

Nuveen

Dror Poleg
Moderator

Dror Poleg

Founder

Rethinking.RE

Jamie Hodari

Jamie Hodari

CBRE

CEO, Building Operations & Experience

Mark Furness

Mark Furness

CEO

Essensys

Thais Galli

Managing Director, Innovation

Tishman Speyer

Ms. Galli joined Tishman Speyer in 2016 and currently oversees Studio, the firm’s global coworking and flexible leasing platform. She previously was a part of the Strategy team, where she focused on corporate initiatives. Prior to Tishman Speyer, Ms. Galli was a consultant for McKinsey & Company, where she worked on restructurings, turnarounds, mergers, and acquisitions for large global corporations. She holds her BA in Business and Economics from Fundação Getulio Vargas and her MBA from Harvard Business School.

Chad Phillips

Head of US Office Sector

Nuveen

Chad is responsible for the overall strategy, performance, and day-to-day activities of Nuveen Real Estate’s office investments, which includes overseeing the U.S. Cities Office platform and providing Investment oversight to the New York City Property platform. He is also a member of Nuveen Real Estate’s Investment Committee and the Americas Executive Leadership Team.

Prior to joining the firm, Chad was a portfolio manager and managing director at Guggenheim Real Estate, where he oversaw all facets of their U.S. open-end funds, including one that was a member of the NCREIF NFI-ODCE Index. During his nearly 15 year career at Guggenheim, Chad was a member of the Investment Committee and participated in the acquisition of over 90 direct property assets with a gross acquisition value of $2.6 billion. He started his career as an associate at Banc of America Securities in the Real Estate Investment Banking and Debt Capital Markets groups.

Chad graduated with a B.A. from Davidson College and a Master’s in Real Estate from Georgetown University.

Dror Poleg

Moderator

Rethinking.RE

Dror Poleg is the author of Rethinking Real Estate and the Co-Chair of the Urban Land Institute’s Technology and Innovation Council in New York. His insights on the future of cities and buildings have been featured in publications including the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, NBC, Forbes, The Times, and The Globe and Mail.

Dror briefs and advises senior executives from multibillion dollar companies such as UBS, Goldman Sachs, AvalonBay Communities, British Land, Liberty Mutual, Dubai Holding, and Cushman & Wakefield.

Dror’s work draws on his experiences as a real estate and technology executive in the US, China, UK, and Australia, as well as on his formal training at the London School of Economics, INSEAD, and Swinburne University of Technology.

Previously, Dror served as Vice President of Kardan Land, where he oversaw the expansion of a $3b property portfolio in partnership with investors such as Blackrock MGPA and Frasers Properties; as CEO of Otherz.com, an app development company; and as Head of Digital at Standards Group, a creative agency that served clients such as IKEA, Scandinavian Airlines, and Shangri La Hotels.

Jamie Hodari

CBRE

CEO, Building Operations & Experience

Jamie Hodari has executive responsibility for CBRE’s Building Operations & Experience (BOE) business segment, which unifies building operations, workplace experience and property management, positioning CBRE to deliver scalable, future-ready solutions for offices, data centers, warehouses and other facilities.

BOE consists of CBRE’s Enterprise Facilities Management, Local Facilities Management and Property Management business lines and Industrious, CBRE’s wholly owned flexible workplace subsidiary. This segment produced approximately $20 billion of combined revenue, including Industrious, in 2024 and comprises CBRE’s entire 7+ billion sq. ft. global property and corporate facilities management portfolio.

As CBRE’s Chief Commercial Officer, Mr. Hodari also has responsibility for marketing and branding activities across all CBRE businesses.

Jamie Hodari is also Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Industrious, the flexible workplace industry's largest premium provider, with more than 200 locations in over 65 global markets.

Mr. Hodari co-founded Industrious in 2012 and has served as Chief Executive Officer since its inception. Under his leadership, Industrious has expanded its global footprint and redefined how companies manage their workplace. The company was named one of America’s fastest-growing companies by Inc. Magazine in both 2020 and 2024.

Prior to Industrious, Mr. Hodari served as Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Kepler, which pioneered a lower-cost, high-performing university model in East Africa. Earlier in his career, he was an investor at Birch Run Capital, a corporate attorney at Sullivan & Cromwell, and a reporter for the Times of India.

In 2024, the Commercial Observer named Mr. Hodari to its Power 100 list and Thesis Driven named Mr. Hodari #3 on its list of the 100 most innovative people in real estate. Mr. Hodari holds a J.D. from Yale Law School, an M.P.P. from Harvard University, and a B.A. from Columbia University.

Mark Furness

CEO

Essensys

Mark is the CEO of essensys, the world’s largest provider of mission-critical software and services to the flexible workspace industry. He has over 15 years of experience in building global SaaS and IT organizations. With a focus on automation and self-service, he founded essensys in 2006 to change the way space providers deliver services and meet occupier requirements in the flexible office sector.

Summary

  1. How have the demand drivers for flex and coworking space changed since the pandemic and what do occupiers want from their space, immediately and long term?

  2. Landlords say they want to offer flexible space to occupiers, but do they really want to get involved in the sector? If so, what tools do they need to succeed?

  3. What are the different models available to landlords: building your own flex space vs leasing to operators vs forming a partnership?

  4. What are the key elements of building and filling a flexible office space?