Emma Berry, 31
Vice president in real estate finance at Goldman Sachs
Emma Berry has come a long way from Australia.
After growing up in the small harbor city of Newcastle, and leaving Sydney straight out of college to join Goldman Sachs in New York, Berry has made a name for herself in the commercial real estate space.
After the last two years, she’s been focused on the firm’s conduit origination platform — dealing with loans that go into CMBS pools to be securitized for investors — which she’s co-run with colleagues across the firm’s East Coast offices.
Berry admits it hasn’t been easy to pool deals now that origination volume is down so much, especially after experiencing record volumes in 2021 and 2022. Despite the downturn, her Manhattan-based team has still done more than $1 billion in originations this year.
“Even with rates where they are, people do need refinancing, so, while we’re seeing a slowdown in lending with some regional banks and life companies, we are still very open,” she said. “In most cases, we will find a way to structure a deal and make it financeable.”
While the swiftest interest rate increase in 40 years has coupled with the highest interest rates in nearly 20 years to close off most liquidity for a starved system, Berry smiles at the thought of growing as a CRE professional in such a difficult market. “It’s certainly an interesting market,” she said. “You definitely learn a lot more in tough markets than easier ones.”
What she likes best about working in the industry is the education it’s given her.
“What I enjoy about commercial real estate is the fact that it does touch every part of the economy: hotels is consumer sentiment, similar to retail; office is how the general corporate market is performing; industrial is the same; and then subsectors like cinema and data centers that are new trends that are becoming relevant,” Berry said. “The market is always changing.
“The fact that your tenants are the touchpoint to the economy as a whole and that our market moves with the ebbs and flows of the general economy is pretty fascinating,” she added.
