Lauren E. Carnevale, 33

Lauren Carnevale thought she was going to be a paralegal, but taking an administrative assistant role with an executive at Partner Engineering and Science in Plano, Texas, changed the course of her career. 

The executive she was assisting, Summer Gell, became Carnevale’s mentor in her climb over the span of a decade from administrative assistant to a national client manager and principal at the environmental and engineering consulting firm. 

“Learning about the company from a high-ranking female executive was amazing, and I think that’s part of the reason that I had the opportunities afforded to me,” Carnevale said. “She believed in me, and I worked really hard to gain her trust.”

Carnevale now works alongside Gell primarily overseeing Fannie and Freddie multifamily transactions with a team that creates environmental reports, and helps clients understand immediate needs as well as forecasts for future expenses on properties.

One of the largest projects Carnevale has worked on was for a client who called in a favor: to assess and report on 150 mobile home communities across the country in two weeks, when the lead time for a portfolio of that size is usually about a month, Carnevale said. She’s proud that they turned it around.

“It’s easy to work with people who believe in you,” she said, adding that creating bonds with her clients and teammates is of paramount importance to her.

Carnevale is currently working on supporting a large institutional client with a multibillion-dollar purchase of assets nationwide. Partner was retained for environmental and engineering services for both the equity and debt, Carnevale said. She isn’t tiring of the work anytime soon.

“One of my jokes is they’ll take me out of Partner in a body bag,” Carnevale said. “But my plans for the future are to always be learning and growing.”