Despite growing up in a real estate family in Hamburg, Germany, Gaedeke Group CEO Sabine Gaedeke Stener's route was via Bertelsmann AG, where she went to work out of college as the assistant to Germany's former minister of finance. Her father then asked her to evaluate some residential and office buildings in Dallas that her family bought from the RTC. She realized they needed leasing, management, and sprucing up, forming a full-service management company to take care of that, she tells us. She now oversees a portfolio of Class-A office buildings in five states and DC as well as the oil and gas investments of Gaedeke Energy and Gaedeke Holdings. For more on her journey and her advice to young women starting out in the business, real Real Estate Bisnow Dallas-Fort Worth.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Keep an eye out for more feature profiles of top women in our publications across the country. We'll find out how these power players got to the top and their surprising advice for young women starting out in the commercial real estate industry today. Check out more women we've profiled: Hunt Realty Investments president Pat Gibson and C&W vice chairman Joanne Podell.