How many years have you been in the industry?   

14 years.

What motivates you? 

When I was living in Lebanon, I had the privilege – dare I say – of meeting a lot of kids and mothers who are suffering from extreme poverty and oppression.  At the same time, I was reading about Warren Buffett and the 99% wealth pledge.  I decided to give work my all, so that one day, I can give them my all.

What’s one piece of advice you’d give to someone entering CRE? 

From your very first year of your career, start working on the 2 things your job won’t provide for you.  First is an ever-growing network of contacts in or adjacent to the industry.  Second is an enough-to-be-dangerous level of understanding of all facets of CRE… I mean all the way from Investment Managers and Debt Providers to Legal to Construction and Architecture.

What’s your favorite thing about real estate? 

Hmm… It’s a toss up between 2 things.  First is that it’s one of the few industries that are predominantly reliant on deal-making as opposed to mass-selling a product.  Second is intimately knowing how your city was built and the interesting behind-the-scenes stories you gain along the way.

What’s your biggest career accomplishment?

I’d like to think my biggest career accomplishment is yet to come!  But assuming you’re looking for a story from the past, I’ll mention one from Lebanon.  I was working for a very large builder that built skyscrapers around the Middle East, Africa, and Europe.  During my 3^rd year, I laser-focused on implementing several initiatives to maximize the productivity of concrete work which we self-performed.  By the end of the year, across all our projects (~10 million square feet), my initiatives improved our productivity by ~60%, doubling the firm’s profitability. Following that success, I was selected to be part of a new team along 2 others to analyze the full operation of the holding (4 companies, 8 countries, 7,000 people) and implement improvement initiatives across the board (business, finance, people, and operation strategy).

What do you find most valuable about being an active ULI and YLG member?  

Like I said above, growing your network and knowledge base are 2 very important things in CRE.  ULI and YLG provide both better than any other alternative I’ve experienced.

What are you reading, watching, or listening to now?    

I’m building a startup (C Street) that I launched last year with 2 friends in the industry so I’m reading startup books, watching YouTube interviews of other startup founders, and listening to Coldplay to stay sane!

What are you looking forward to?    

I’ve always looked forward to realizing my long-term vision.  My professional “raison d’etre” is to empower developers with the tools and knowledge to not overpay for construction.  I want to see TOCCI perfect that mission locally as an operator and C Street perfect it globally as a software platform.

What’s your favorite part about being involved with ULI Boston’s YLG?

For me, it’s the conversations with the other members before and after meetings.

What is one thing about our industry that you’d like to see improve for future generations?  

I’d like to see the old and somewhat lingering culture of arrogance, adversary, parochialism and opacity replaced with aspects of the startup culture of humility, transparency, ranklessness, and relentless pursuit of iterative improvement.  This industry can make leaps in efficiency by focusing on culture, and there are already several green shoots!