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Center for Corporate Sustainability
4850 SW Scholls Ferry Rd, Suite 203
Portland, OR 97225
503-274-7162

 

About Us


Glenn Fischer   -   Dave Hewett  -  Alan Whitson

Glenn Fischer
Glenn Fischer is a founder of the Corporate Realty, Design & Management Institute, and a real estate and publishing consultant. He also is President of a non-profit organization called The Center for Sustainable Real Estate. His career over the past 25 years has given him considerable insight into the inner workings of the real estate and commercial buildings industries.


Prior to the founding of CRDMI, Fischer was Publisher/CEO of MetroAmerica Office Guides, a Portland-based real estate media company that grew to become one of the nation's top publishers of commercial and industrial real estate guides. While at MetroAmerica, he developed database systems that tracked office, R&D, retail and industrial markets representing more than one billion square feet of space. The databases became an inventory of 8,300 buildings.

Similar databases and publications were subsequently developed for the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, Phoenix, Detroit, St. Louis, and Omaha. Publications under his direction were noted for their editorial excellence in covering emerging trends in the design, construction and operation of commercial real estate. Fischer is well known for analyzing market conditions and presenting that much sought after market data to BOMA members. He negotiated the sale of MetroAmerica to Black’s Guide in 1995.

Key to Fischer’s success at MetroAmerica was the ability to work through the various channels of the commercial real estate industry. He worked with the steering committees for National Association of Industrial & Office Parks (NAIOP) chapters in Orange County and Inland Empire to organize the highly popular bus tours of office, industrial and retail properties in those fast growing regions. These annual bus tours drew hundreds of major developers, real estate brokers,
architects, and contractors to see the latest trends in commercial real estate. The Building Owners & Managers Association International (BOMA) tapped his expertise for a task force that established guidelines for describing office market conditions.

Both Institutional Real Estate, which covers real estate-related activities of pension funds, REITS, and other institutional investors and hosts educational events for that market; and ASSETrac, a nationwide REIT tracking service, have used Fischer’s consulting services.

Before working at MetroAmerica, Fischer headed his own marketing consulting firm and developed marketing, advertising, public relations, and market research programs for several real estate brokerages, developers, and industrial corporations in the Northwest. While at Pihas Schmidt Westerdahl Co. (PSW) in Portland, he worked on development teams for several downtown high rise, historic renovation, and suburban office projects, and the beginning stages of Hawthorne Farm which grew into one of the Northwest’s premier industrial/hi-tech parks.

Fischer is a Past President for the National Association of Real Estate Editors (NAREE), the nation’s largest organization of real estate editors and writers. As chairman of NAREE’s convention committee he was responsible for NAREE holding its 1994 convention in Portland. Additionally, he was a founder of the Real Estate Information Network (REI-NET), then the nation’s largest association of independent real estate publishers and real estate data suppliers. Today, he’s a member of:

  • International Facilities Management Association (IFMA) including serving as Vice President of the IFMA Healthcare Council
  • U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC)
  • National Association of Real Estate Editors (NAREE)

Fischer resides in Portland and holds a B.S. in Journalism from the University of Oregon

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Dave Hewett, CCIM, CPM, RPA, CFM, FMA, CRE
Currently Dave acts as a consultant to the industry focused on Leadership Development and Organizational Structure. Using his 30 plus years of experience in the business world he is helping managers, leaders and organizations achieve exceptional results for their clients and organizations.

Mr. Hewett has over 30 years of business experience, including work in all aspects of the Real Estate and Facilities industry, working for both owners and service providers.

Clients have included institutional, corporate, municipal and private entities, such as Microsoft, PMC-Sierra, Pitney Bowes, California Federal Savings, Pacific Gas & Electric, United States GSA and Comerica Bank. Dave has led the transitions for some of the largest Corporate Real Estate outsourcing programs in the industry.

As a problem solver, it is common for Dave to be asked to enter into an organization with a need for change management and lead the efforts to reorganize and build a team and an organization with a vision for the future. Dave is noted for his focus on leadership development, change management and vision, both at the corporate level and throughout the industry. He has served as an active leader as well as consultant at several industry associations and professional organizations.

Mr. Hewett resides in Hillsboro, Oregon and holds a BS in Business, Emphasis: Organization Development from the University of Colorado

  • 2007: Member: Board of Trustees, IFMA Foundation
  • 2006-2007: Executive Member: Open Standards Consortium for Real Estate (OSCRE)
  • 2005-2007: Chairman, Faith Bible Christian School, Hillsboro Oregon
  • 2005-2006: Chairman, Building Owners and Managers Association International
  • 2005-2006: Member, Board of Directors, Real Estate Round Table
  • 1999 to 2003: Member, Executive Committee, BOMA International
  • 1998: President, Portland Building Owners and Managers Association
  • 1994: President, Institute of Real Estate Management, Chapter #29

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Alan Whitson, RPA
In 1972, Alan Whitson began his real estate career in Seattle after leaving the US Navy’s nuclear submarine program. Whitson’s experience encompasses over 40 million square feet of facilities around the world in the roles of Asset Manager, Corporate Facilities Manager, Construction Manager, Development Manager, and Commercial Real Estate Broker.

The scope of Whitson’s 30+-year career gives him a keen insight into the real estate needs of today’s corporation, and a unique understanding of the architectural, construction and real estate industries. He has held positions with: The Muller Company, Newport Beach; Bank of America’s Corporate Real Estate Division; Storek & Storek Architecture, San Francisco; The Shorenstein Company, San Francisco; Environmental Design Engineering, Seattle, San Francisco and Honolulu.

Whitson holds the professional designation of Real Property Administrator (RPA) from the Building Owners and Managers Institute and was a contributor to BOMA International’s handbook on preparing market condition reports. He’s a member of:

  • BOMA International’s newly merged Energy & Environment Committee
  • He was an initial member of the organization that went on to become the International Facility Managers Association (IFMA)
  • Healthcare Financial Managers Association (HFMA)
  • The New Buildings Institute's Technical Review Committee for Advanced Buildings: Energy Benchmark for High Performance Buildings a standard used in the LEED Rating system
  • The EEF-EPA Advisory Committee for Indoor Air Quality.

A popular author and speaker, he was pegged as the “Green Building Guru Who Paints a Profit-Making Picture” by one of the world’s leading organizations of industrial manufacturers. Whitson’s books include 365 Important Questions to Ask about Green Buildings, Smart Moves Manual, 327 Questions to Ask Before You Sign a Lease, Building Operating Costs Guidebook, and Bottom Line Comparative Lease Analysis Software. His column, Turning Green into Gold, appears regularly in OfficeInsight, a national online newsletter. He is a reviewer for BOMI’s Asset Management textbook, and authored the recently released, Green Leasing Library on CD.

He is the seminar leader for the acclaimed Turning Green into Gold® educational series. More than 13,000 design, construction, facilities, and real estate professionals involved in over one billion square feet in projects have viewed this seminar in live seminars formats and via the internet.

Samples of Whitson’s experience include:

  • After taking over a troubled renovation of a 144,000 square foot historical building, he directed the redesign of the new HVAC system, when the bids were 19% over budget. This slashed the total system cost 35%. Yet, this new HVAC system increased the rentable and usable square footage of the building, reduced annual energy costs 23% and improved air quality.
  • Conducted the financial and operational feasibility analysis that were the basis for the $660 million sale of Bank of America’s World Headquarters in San Francisco and the Bank’s decision to sell its 48% interest in the 2.4 million square foot Arco Plaza, Los Angeles. The result — almost a billion dollars flowed to Bank of America’s bottom line.
  • As manager of planning and construction for Bank of America’s data processing facilities he was responsible for 2,000 construction projects and 1,000 relocations a year. Project volume increased 37% while average project delivery time was reduced by 5% with no increase in staff during Whitson’s tenure.

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