Each year, Midwest Real Estate News inducts new members into its Midwest Commercial Real Estate Hall of Fame. This year, we are running profiles of these inductees online. It’s our hope that you’ll learn a bit about what makes these Hall of Famers so successful. This time, we feature Patrick Ahern, senior vice president with the Chicago office of Associated Bank.
The bio: Patrick Ahern is senior vice president of portfolio and administration manager for commercial real estate at Associated Bank, where he signed on in 2010.
This is far from a small job: Ahern is responsible for supporting real estate loan growth across Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Texas, as well as the ongoing oversight of that portfolio. Ahern helps manage a staff that includes more than 40 CRE credit managers across the nation.
A knack for growth: At Associated Bank, Ahern’s knack for driving expansion was focused first on the target markets of Chicago, Minneapolis and St. Louis, and the bank’s home state of Wisconsin. From there, Ahern has since helped lead the widening of the bank’s CRE footprint throughout the Midwest to include Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Detroit, Dallas and Cleveland. All of the CRE team’s portfolio managers, loan administration staffers and financial reporting personnel answer to him.
A long history of success: Ahern previously worked at The Private Bank in Chicago, where he served as commercial real estate managing director. There, Ahern led a seven-person lending division responsible for a Chicago-suburban loan portfolio of $500 million. Before that, he was a senior vice president at Bank of America/LaSalle Bank where he led Midwest Debt Products, a division of 85 professionals responsible for a diverse loan portfolio exceeding $10 billion, spanning six states.
Meeting the challenges: Ahern told Midwest Real Estate News that the greatest challenge in commercial real estate today is to “continue to stay on top of the market. The real estate business is dynamic, and the ability to react to competition and changes to market fundamentals is crucial to best serving our client base.”
Active in his community: Ahern is the Chicago District Council Treasurer of the Urban Land Institute and serves as a mentor at the DePaul University Real Estate Program. He’s a volunteer at Misericordia Home, helping with fund-raising for this Chicago-based home to more than 600 children and adults with developmental and physical disabilities.
Ahern also serves on the finance board that drives capital campaigns for St. Petronille Parish, a Glen Ellyn, Illinois-based Catholic church. He also served on the facilities committee of his local school district, and volunteers his time with Boy Scouts and school athletics.
