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way and if successful, how do we really scale? Or where
we fail: what are the lessons we can apply and share going
forward? Failure doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea; it’s about
learning from that experience and continuing to work
forward and accelerate.

What technology, automation or innovation trends
do you see having the most impact on the industry
over the next three years and why?
Recently, I attended a retail-specific technology conference
and was intrigued by the recurring message that, contrary
to what everyone is hearing about the death of the retail
store, physical space is very important to the shopper
experience and one of the least expensive ways to acquire
Brookfield Place, New York customers. The trend for retail is not that the physical
space is no longer needed, but rather that we will see a
North America. Plus we were able to retire 20 systems in convergence of the digital and physical worlds. As we think
the office platform with the move to the new platforms. about real estate and real estate development, people want
a sense of place. As investors, owners and operators of
What are your highest priority technology initiatives in
2019 and what are the drivers behind them?
My focus this year is to build a strong network across
teams and begin to define a go-forward data and
innovation strategy for our real estate business. Defining
this strategy and framework will accelerate our capability
to take advantage of all the amazing technology that’s
available now. My goal is to take advantage of the power
of our scale at Brookfield.

We are continuing our rollout with Honest Buildings
across the office portfolio. We’re doing a large Salesforce
upgrade and modernization with the Retail group. The
Residential team is consolidating and modernizing all of
their major applications over the next 24 months. We’ve
also completed a lot of work to provide great metrics and Fashion Show, Las Vegas
dashboards for retail decision making and will continue to
improve capabilities in this area across all of our business space, we have to evolve how to incorporate technology
teams. We’re also rolling out digital directories to a num- and digital experiences as part of the regular everyday
ber of shopping malls, as well as license plate recognition physical experience to delight and entertain people—so
across 50% of the retail portfolio this year. that they’ll want to continue to live, work and play in these
places.
Additionally, a big priority for us this year, and every
year going forward, is cybersecurity enhancements and The other big trend I see is an awakening to the issues of
improvement. The retail platform is currently implementing data access and privacy. I don’t think the general public
a Network Access Controls (NAC) tool across the portfolio. truly realized before now the amount of data that is col-
This security solution ensures only trusted devices can be lected by social media companies, search engines or just
connected to our network, which will reduce the risks of places they frequent on a daily basis with their mobile
malware and nefarious activities occurring. This has been devices. I believe the public’s perception of privacy and
a game changer for us in terms of improving our security protection is going to evolve over the next few years and
posture at all physical shopping malls. there will have to be significant regulatory changes. It’s
going to be a very different world regarding data and
What I see happening today is a frenzy of interest in new information access—and we need to figure out how to
startups. Our challenge is to better identify, pilot and give people the personalization they want that makes
scale the new ideas that are truly going to make a differ- everything easy and seamless and enjoyable, without
ence to our real estate portfolios and operations. Which sacrificing their privacy and having their personal lives
are the game changers? How do we pilot these in the best invaded. This will be an important issue going forward.

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