Cresa Adds DEI Consultant Mike Burns as SVP on DC Team
By Keith Loria October 11, 2022 5:03 pm
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Mike Burns has joined Cresa’s Washington, D.C., office as a senior vice president with the brokerage firm’s occupier services group, Commercial Observer has learned.
“I fell in love with the culture at Cresa. Inside is a meritocracy, and what you put in is what you get out,” Burns told CO. “They have the systems in place to support success. The firm also has a culture of teaming, and they are always looking for ways to improve.”
In his new role, Burns will serve mainly as an adviser to companies looking for office space, assisting tenants with long-term strategies that meet the needs of office occupiers in the D.C. metro area.
“Given my background and knowing that the space people operate in is where culture is built, I will also be a partner in developing culture for clients before beginning the site-selection process,” he said. “I will be stepping beyond just the transactional to bring clients space that facilitates and amplifies culture.”
Burns comes to Cresa from The Burns Brothers, an agency he founded with his brother, which focused on delivering solutions at the intersection of research, integrated marketing, diversity, equity and inclusion. He also spent 13 years in the U.S. Army, as both a helicopter pilot and civil-military adviser with the 101st Airborne Division in support of operations in both Afghanistan and Iraq.
As part of his work with Cresa, Burns will leverage his DEI expertise to advise real estate clients on how to select and design inclusive workplaces.
“Mike has been an adviser to Cresa for some time helping us build our own DEI offering,” Mindy Saffer, managing principal with Cresa’s D.C. office, said in a prepared statement. “He is in a unique position to bring together these two worlds, and his experience and unique perspective will be invaluable as more clients seek to create distinct and diverse cultures via their office space.”
While his immediate business goal is to bring new opportunities to Cresa, Burns noted he will also seek to bring underrepresented businesses to the firm ensuring Cresa is a value-add partner beyond just the transactional space.
Keith Loria can be reached at Kloria@commercialobserver.com.
