Communications consultant Andrea Carpenter and property events organiser Viktorija Grubesic have set up a non-profit organisation dedicated to increasing the visibility of women in the European real estate industry.
Called Women Talk Real Estate (WTRE), the firm connects female professionals with speaking and media opportunities and provides training for successful stage and media presence.
Women are currently under-represented as speakers at European real estate events. Out of 1660 speaking opportunities in 2016, only 230, or 14%, were taken up by women.
‘We don’t think these figures truly showcase the expertise of female professionals, or reflect the diversity of the industry we want going forward,’ say Carpenter and Grubesic.
Carpenter is a writer and communications consultant in the property industry. She most recently worked as Head of Marketing and Communications EMEA at CBRE Global Investors where she oversaw the corporate and programme marketing, press, branding and internal communications in the region.
She has also worked for various industry bodies including the Urban Land Institute as well as spending three years as a director and interim CEO at INREV in Amsterdam, and one year at its sister organisation ANREV in Hong Kong.
Grubesic has worked in the real estate industry for 15 years, and for the past 10 has been focused on the programming, marketing and delivery of pan-European events in cities across the region.
She started in real estate by working in the executive search business in London before moving onto event management at the Urban Land Institute.
