As a leader, Bill Baldwin believes that its essential to listen first, then speak.
Too many leaders do not take time to listen, he said. Listening is such a powerful character trait that not everyone possesses. By listening you can do so much more and become a well-informed leader.
This powerful character trait is what has led to Baldwins success as the managing principal of Cresa, an occupier-centric commercial real estate firm.
Baldwin joined Cresas leadership team when his firm, Liberty Greenfield, merged locally with Cresa Denver in 2008, a founding office of Cresa Global, which was formed in 1993. From the start, Baldwin assumed responsibility for strategy and integration, which ultimately led to a restructuring role. Baldwin was intimately involved in creating and improving common policies and procedures, compensation models, accounting methodologies, financial forecasting, and marketing and training.
What is different about me is an ability to see and understand the opportunity within the businesses, aggregate the resources necessary to achieve the objective and negotiate through the complex series of actions and practices that have to take place in order to achieve that objective, said Baldwin.
Such abilities have served him well at Cresa. Within three years, with Baldwin in the role of managing principal, operations at Cresa Denver grew from a $4 million office to a $15 million office. By 2013, Baldwin rose up to join the ranks of Board of Director and was instrumental in setting the merger strategy of 14 independently-owned Cresa offices, consolidating them into a single $120 million firm managing a $230 million global enterprise. In 2015, Baldwin established an office in Portland, Oregon and in just four years, the business grew to over $3.2 million in revenue with 10 employees. He currently serves as a managing member of Cresa Portland.
My entrepreneurial spirit of being able to recognize untapped opportunity and execute the business plan in Cresa Portland is unique in our industry, said Baldwin.
His accomplishments have included recognition as a top performing broker, a member of the Board of Directors of Cresa, a member of the Board of Directors for the Colorado Business Committee for the Arts. He was awarded the CXO of the year by the Denver Business Journal.
I have been fortunate to have had the opportunity to lead and grow three separate, but related businesses, said Baldwin. Each stage of my business career has afforded me the ability to grow professionally, use my education to further drive the success of our businesses and be richly rewarded through working with and mentoring some extraordinary teammates and partners along the way.
Looking forward, Baldwin said he plans to consistently drive growth. His success, achievements and reputation have contributed to a higher of level leadership and has earned him a spot as a Titan of industry.