2021 President's Message

CREW Members, Sponsors, and Volunteers, and Supporters,

With mixed excitement and anticipate I’m happy to say a new year is upon us. Welcome 2021!

To say 2020 wasn’t the year we were expecting would be an understatement. As I reflect back on 2020 as it pertains to CREW Vancouver the following words come to mind: resilience, community, commitment and pride.

Thank you to our 2020 leaders, sponsors, and volunteers. It’s because of your commitment we were able to pursue our mission to accelerate women in commercial real estate over the last year and we look forward to your continued support in 2021.

Through our collective resiliency we were able to successfully pivot and ensure we maintained added value to our sponsors and members. This created a community of support for all CREW stakeholders during these turbulent times. I’ve heard from many of our members that this community created a valuable foundation for them in 2020. On a personal note, this community was imperative for me in 2020 and offered more support than I could have ever imagined I needed.

In 2021, we will continue to monitor our global and local circumstances and use it as fuel to innovate our programs and services, accelerate our mandate and continue to add value to the community and industry we serve.

When I look back on 2020, I will do so with pride. Pride for how we came together, supported each other, addressed many governance matters with fairness and grace, and continued to add value and deliver on our mission and mandate. In 2021 we will look to listen and learn from our members, volunteers, industry peers, and sponsors to ensure our programming is relevant and optimal. We will continue your focus on learning and development, coaching, DEI, mentorship, networking and so many more important topics.

As a result of the COVID-19 Global Pandemic our 2020 Board is faced with both the challenge and opportunity to address many governance issues, succession planning considerations, and operational challenges. Following the lead of many governance boards we have requested that all Directors continue to serve the organization to ensure we address many of above stated issues and challenges with consistent leadership in place. I realize that these unprecedented times call for unprecedented decisions and I want to recognize the unwavering dedicated of the talented women that comprised our Board of Directors in 2020 and 2021; Cindy MacMillan, Michelle Yung, Michelle Roundell, Stephanie Marshall, Crystal Stus, Lauren MacKinnon, Joanne Chua, Kristen Cheung, Karena Selnar, and Maryam Bagheri. Each one of you has worked tirelessly in 2020 to add value to our CREW members, volunteers, sponsors, and the Commercial Real Estate Industry. You should all be extremely proud of your contributions. It was an honour to serve with each one of you. Furthermore, I want to welcome and congratulate Tina Lu to replace Stephanie Marshall as our Director of Membership and the talented Lauren MacKinnon as our President Elect 2021.

2020 you challenged us and made us stronger than ever. In 2021 we will continue to serve the best interests of our membership and look to build a strong foundation for CREW Vancouver during these unprecedented global times.

Thank you all for your ongoing support and with excitement bring on 2021!