Commercial Sales and Leasing Manager

What do you do?

I am responsible for all the property and commercial transactions at Tonsley, including sales and leasing and I look after property management and oversee facilities management for the project as well. I’ve been with the Tonsley project for 4 ½ years and in my current role for about three years.

How did you get started in your field?

I started my studies in a Bachelor of Commerce but about 6 months in, I realised it wasn’t what I wanted to do. So I transferred into a Bachelor of Business Property, a course I really enjoyed and was able to get a role in property once I finished university. This was at a small real-estate agency where I was able to do a little bit of everything. This was a really steep learning curve for me which was actually good. The role was primarily residential sales, commercial sales and commercial property management and leasing which helped me learn a lot as well as figure out that commercial property is what I wanted to do fulltime.

Have you found your industry to be very male dominated?

Absolutely...which has been interesting. When I moved to the commercial side of things in my first role there were four males and myself. and I think I was the first female in that agency to ever touch commercial. It’s been tough and it’s a challenge, but it’s something I’m used to now and have learnt to work with it and make it work for me to do my job properly.

What have you learnt about yourself over the course of your career?

That I can do the job, which has helped my self-confidence. You have to be confident to succeed, particularly in a male dominated industry where some males aren’t supportive of you moving up in the industry. Be confident in what you’re doing and saying, otherwise you won’t get people to listen to you. The key is I know I can do this role, I’m in the right field for me, doing the best I can. It can get tiring always having to prove myself, but industry groups like PCA promoting their 100 women in property are doing some great work and I can say things are better now than they previously were.

What advice would you give to men in your industry to be more supportive of their female colleagues?

Just treat everyone the same. They might not even notice they only talk to the most senior person at the table who happens to be male, but there are often other people in the room making the decisions, so just be conscious of who you’re talking with. I notice this in some meetings when I won’t get addressed.

When you decided to pursue your career, did you give much thought to gender?

No - I didn’t really know much about the property industry at all when I decided to study it and at university you really don’t have much of an idea about what it’s like out there in the workforce until you actually get out there. In saying that, I’m really proud of the work I’ve done as a female in this industry and am seeing great growth in the industry.