Kerry Kartsonis, 34

Kerry Kartsonis has done well in commercial real estate finance on the acquisitions side over the last 12 years after initially envisioning a far different career.

As a government major at Harvard, Kartsonis was thinking of going into law or politics before an internship with a congressman in Washington, D.C., made her reconsider. Kartsonis sought different finance opportunities, and landed a job at ASB Real Estate Investments working in acquisitions in asset management, soon realizing this was the field she was meant to be a part of. 

“I didn’t go into the industry knowing absolutely this is what I want to do,” Kartsonis said. “It’s been through working in it where it’s very much been a great fit for me and a career I’ve really liked. It’s such a good mix of the qualitative and the quantitative, which kind of suits my skill set pretty well.”

Kartsonis spent nearly five years at ASB before stints at Angelo Gordon and Blackstone in New York. In September 2022, she headed back to D.C. for her current role on the acquisitions team at Artemis. She works on transactions ranging from around $70 million for single-asset property to $300 million for a portfolio deal. Nine months after her arrival at Artemis, the firm closed a $2.2 billion value fund that is seeking distressed opportunities across the U.S. 

In addition to looking for acquisition opportunities in various property sectors, Kartsonis is also a portfolio manager of assets for a pension fund Artemis manages.

A former soccer player at Harvard, Kartsonis said her athletic career helped pave the way for much of her current work. “The work ethic and time management learned from playing sports has really helped lay a good foundation for when it comes to working on deals,” Kartsonis said. “It was such a good foundation for working together and putting your head down to accomplish a task.”