Workforce, Leadership Gaps Drive New Executive Development Program

Why It Matters

By addressing the looming talent gap and gender imbalance, the program strengthens leadership pipelines, giving firms a competitive edge as the industry confronts a massive retirement cliff. Its scalable design could reshape executive diversity standards across commercial real estate.

Key Takeaways

• 40% of CRE workforce retiring within ten years
• Women hold 9% of CRE C‑suite positions
• Six‑month cohort program partners with P20 Leadership
• First cohort includes eight senior women across U.S. markets
• Scalable model will expand through district council partnerships

Pulse Analysis

The commercial‑real‑estate sector is confronting a dual challenge: an unprecedented retirement wave and a persistent gender gap at the top. Deloitte’s 2024 analysis shows that almost 40 percent of CRE professionals will exit the labor market in the next ten years, far outpacing the 23 percent rate across all industries. Meanwhile, women—who represent roughly 42 percent of the workforce—still hold fewer than one‑tenth of C‑suite seats, a ratio that has barely moved in a decade. This structural shortfall threatens succession planning and limits the industry’s ability to innovate in a rapidly evolving built environment.

WLI’s new Executive Development Program tackles these issues head‑on by delivering a six‑month, cohort‑based accelerator that blends executive coaching, a rigorous curriculum and a peer network spanning public, private, nonprofit and institutional sectors. Designed with P20 Leadership, the program focuses on sustainable performance, adaptive influence and relational capital—skills essential for senior leadership. The inaugural cohort of eight women, each averaging 21 years of experience, serves as a proof point for the model’s efficacy and its potential to be replicated by ULI district councils across the country.

If successful, the initiative could become a blueprint for industry‑wide talent development, helping firms mitigate the retirement cliff while advancing gender equity in leadership. Companies that invest early in such pipelines are likely to secure a stronger, more diverse executive bench, translating into better decision‑making and market resilience. As the program scales, it may also pressure competitors to adopt similar frameworks, accelerating a broader cultural shift toward inclusive, future‑ready leadership in commercial real estate.