Late last year, Midwest Real Estate News ran its first Hall of Fame issue, dedicated to highlighting the careers of the most successful commercial real estate professionals in the Midwest. We’ve since been running these profiles on our Web site. Here is a look at the successful career of Collete English Dixon from Chicago’s Prudential Real Estate Investors.
Collete English Dixon Position: Vice President, Transactions Company: Prudential Real Estate Investors Location: Chicago
Collete English Dixon’s work ethic is legendary in the commercial real estate business. Anyone who needs evidence of this need only track her career at Prudential Real Estate Investors.
Dixon began her career at Prudential as an asset management analyst in 1979. Today, she is co-leader of Prudential Real Estate Investors’ national investments dispositions program. This means that she’s responsible for managing the sales of the company’s investment properties on behalf of its clients.
And while much of the commercial real estate business is in the doldrums, Dixon and her business unit are enjoying a solid year. By the end of 2010, the Prudential Real Estate Investors’ dispositions team will have completed the sale of more than $2 billion in portfolio assets.
That’s a heady climb, from asset management analyst to the co-leader of a successful dispositions program. But those who’ve kept track of Dixon’s career since she first arrived at Prudential are far from surprised.
“Collete is passionate about her career,” said one peer. “She gives her all to the business. There’s a reason why she’s so respected in the industry. It’s because she never gives less than 100 percent effort.”
These efforts have led Dixon to the type of career that few real estate professionals can expect to enjoy. It’s also resulted in Dixon becoming one of the more influential professionals in the commercial real estate business.
Before taking her current position, Dixon was responsible for sourcing real estate investments in multiple Midwest markets for Prudential. In this position, she worked with all property types, including office buildings, multi-family residential, hotel properties, industrial sites and retail properties. Through December of 2007, Dixon had received authorization for more than $2.7 billion of new investments for Prudential Real Estate Investors’ clients.
Dixon also enjoyed some amazing successes from 1989 through parts of 1996. During this period, she handled property dispositions and formed exit strategies for investment properties across the eastern portion of the United States. Dixon was involved in more than $380 million worth of property sales during this time.
This is an already long list of accomplishments. But Dixon has also exerted a big influence in her industry outside of her achievements with Prudential. She is the 2011 president of CREW Network and a past president of CREW Chicago. She is also a past chair of the CREW Foundation and vice-chair of membership o fhte Purple Flight of the Urban Development – Mixed-Use Council of ULI.
It’s sometimes amazing that the busy professionals on this list find so much time to volunteer for their communities. Dixon is no exception. She sits on the advisory council for the Roosevelt University Marshall Bennett School of Real Estate and is a member of the board of directors for the Oak Park River Forest Food Pantry. She has also been an active member in Jack and Jill of America and Hephzibah Children’s Association.
