December 10, 2024 | Ella Krygiel, BOMA International
We are delighted to continue our series showcasing BOMA's emerging professionals. Today, we’re turning the spotlight on Matt Faupel, the Vice Chair of our Emerging Professionals Committee. Matt, alongside Sierra Seale, the Committee Chair, brings a wealth of expertise and insight to our monthly meetings. Dive into the Q&A below to discover more about Matt and his experiences. Keep an eye out as we continue to highlight more of our outstanding emerging professionals in the coming months. Wishing you a wonderful holiday season! Ready to launch your career in commercial real estate? EPC membership is open to members with less than five years of industry experience – getting involved is as easy as reaching out ep@boma.org . We look forward to welcoming you to the team! What is your position/title at your current company? How long have you been in the Emerging Professionals Committee? I am a Senior Property Manager for Cushman & Wakefield, managing the Bunge Global Headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri. I have been in the Emerging Professionals Committee for 2 years. What led you to the commercial real estate industry? Over the years I have routinely gravitated towards opportunities that were behind the scenes, everything from helping with audio visual needs for school events, to being a DJ throughout my college years. From an early age I believe my interest in real estate was heavily influenced from my mom’s career in the residential construction industry. I remember her coming home from work and showing blueprints of homes being built then taking me to see the construction phases as it was being built. My parents overwhelming support for me to take on opportunities and do challenging things is a perfect fit in the commercial real estate industry. What has your involvement been like at BOMA? My involvement with BOMA initially started when my boss Ellie suggested I attend some local events. As I became aware of all the opportunities BOMA STL had to offer I started to focus my free time on attending those events, networking, and learning as much as I could about the organization. I took on local opportunities as quickly as I could manage, with joining committees, co-hosting coffee talks, recently becoming chair of the Emergency Preparedness Committee and I am thrilled to start off 2025 on the Board of Directors for STL. My international involvement kicked off after receiving the J Michael Coleman Scholarship to attend the annual conference in 2022. Following that experience, I became more involved as a committee member, moderated my first webinar and am now the co-chair for Emerging Professionals Committee. What advice would you give to emerging professionals in the commercial real estate field? My advice to emerging professionals is to embrace and seek out new challenges in the topics that interest you the most. Find a mentor that will challenge and support you through the process. There will be moments of uncertainty, of getting outside your comfort zone and even hurtles that may be too big to overcome at that moment. All these types of experiences will build an incredible foundation for growth. Maintaining a learning mindset and focusing on developing who you are is the best advice I can give. If you were trapped on an island and could only eat one food, what would it be? It would be my pleasure to bring Chick Fil A. Interested in more content like this? Read our recent articles, Reducing CO2 in Concrete with AI or 8 Key Lessons from BOMA Fellows for New Professionals in Real Estate . You can view all this content and more when you click here to sign up for our General newsletter!