Kate Roush, 27

Prior to her roles at JLL, Kate Roush thought she would end up in the entertainment world.

Throughout her college days, the Southern California native interned with the likes of Mosaic Media Group, KABC (Los Angeles’ ABC affiliate) and “Good Morning America,” wearing myriad sales, production and managerial hats. After graduating from the University of Michigan in 2019, Roush moved to New York and began working in ad sales for the Walt Disney Company.

Yet, Roush remembers wanting more agency in her own career — and few industries offer the level of self-determination as commercial real estate. Although she had little industry knowledge prior to joining JLL in 2021, Roush’s experience in building relationships and client management, along with great mentors at JLL, helped set her up for success, she said.

“When I started at JLL, I was able to take and transfer some of those skills,” Roush said. “One of the beauties of this industry is how people-oriented and relationship-driven it really is. It makes for a very dynamic work environment. And every day is a little bit different, which you can’t really find in a lot of other industries.”

That right mix of people skills and professional guidance has clearly served her well. Roush now serves as a vice president in JLL’s New York brokerage services group after just four years at the company. 

Even within the past six months, Roush has helped represent both tenants and landlords in several nine-figure lease deals across Manhattan. That includes repping Traveler’s Insurance in its 123,000-square-foot renewal at SL Green’s 485 Lexington Avenue at the end of last year. Roush is also part of the team that exclusively handles leasing for Property & Building Corporation’s 30-story 10 Bryant Park, where the team recently snagged a 330,000-square-foot lease from none other than Amazon.