Mentorship Connect 2021 Launches

By Kelsey Kanspedos and Tom Frank

Each year NAIOP Pittsburgh offers its Developing Leaders (DL’s) an extraordinary opportunity to participate in a mentorship program, Mentorship Connect. It provides the DL’s the with the ability to meet and develop professional and personal friendships with some of the most influential people within Commercial Real Estate (CRE) in Pittsburgh. This opportunity allows oneself to become more knowledgeable about other areas of CRE while growing personally and professionally. The support and enthusiasm from the mentors each year is encouraging and to see that they are eager to set aside time to help shape the next generation of professionals in CRE. This program would not be possible without their commitment; we would like to extend a gracious thank you to each mentor that has ever participated.

This year we have taken a different approach to the mentorship program to try and deliver a more well-rounded experience for each participant. We are grouping our 16 mentors into 4 groups with the intent of providing a diversity of professional experience to each group. 

For example, this year the Red Team consists of Don Smith (RIDC), Chip Desmone (Desmone Architects), Alyssa Kunselman (Mascaro Construction) and Tony Rossi (CBRE). Don is the president of RIDC and has some of the most in-depth knowledge of development and commercial real-estate in the Pittsburgh Region.  Chip is the CEO of Desmone Architects and he will be able to share his knowledge of designing buildings and collaborating with developers such as Don.  Alyssa is the Director of Business Development for Mascaro Construction and she can expand on her experiences of how Mascaro has teamed with architects like Chip and developers like Don to build some of the most award-winning projects in our region. Tony is a Senior Vice President with CBRE and has a rich history of connecting capital providers with developers to secure funding for projects all over Pittsburgh.  Our goal is for each mentee to walk away with a more educated understanding of how our industry operates as well as making long term and personal connections.

We are very excited to launch the 2021 NAIOP Pittsburgh Mentorship Connect.

If you would like information on how to be involved for 2022 please contact Kelsey Kanspedos or Tom Frank.

Click here to view our full list of mentors for the 2021 class.

Thank You to our 2021 Mentorship Connect Sponsor: Desmone

Thank You to our 2021 Developing Leader Year Long Sponsor: RIDC