A winner who never takes her eye off the goal.

Like most entrepreneurs, Adrienne Albert started small.

Within the first year of opening The Marketing Directors in 1980, she moved from Canada to the United States with the dream of offering unparalleled marketing services to residential real estate developers--a group that had been woefully underserved.

Her goal was to provide clients with a comprehensive marketing and sales (or rentals) program. In addition to serving as the exclusive sales or leasing agent, her firm would counsel clients starting at the conceptualization phase of the project. Market research and analysis, product development guidance and marketing plans would also be provided to help developers achieve the greatest return on their investments.

Ms. Albert's first New York address was anything but grand, a tiny office in another company's space. Though her office environment was lacking many of the more traditional features--there was no furniture, so she and her two colleagues were forced to sit on the floor--Ms. Albert had something much more valuable: a novel idea for a greatly needed service, an eye for what new development projects required to be successful, a passion for the real estate industry, and the knowledge, spirit and determination to guide her fledgling business.

As soon as The Marketing Directors could afford it, the company moved to its own office space, where they could provide developers with specialized personal service. They had arrived?

Ms. Albert's background played a significant role in her early success, which has continued to this day. Having received a Masters in Architecture degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), she was eager to land a position in a top firm. However, like many grads, finding a job wasn't easy.

She finally landed in an advertising agency, and was expected to handle all the day-to-day business. What she discovered was a disconnect between what the agency said it was delivering to its real estate clients, and the salespersons' expectations from a property's advertising campaign.

It was in that moment that Ms. Albert had her epiphany--to create a real marketing department, one that combines sales and all aspects of marketing under one roof. The Marketing Directors was born.

Over the past 25 years, the Manhattan-based Marketing Directors has successfully marketed over $14 billion worth of luxury residential property, ranging from single-family houses to high-density mixed-use facilities. Although the firm's greatest concentration of clients is in the Northeast, particularly the New York tri-state area, she has served developers in many U.S. cities, including Miami, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Boston, and Atlanta. They have even serviced clients in Toronto, returning to the city where she first got her start.

Today, The Marketing Directors is working on over 60 projects, such as 130 Fulton Street in the financial district, The Windsor in Forest Hills, 1400 on Fifth in Harlem, 425 Fifth Avenue in the heart of midtown, Mirabelle on the Hudson in North Bergen, New Jersey, and Trump Tower and the Lofts at City Center in White Plains, just to name a few.

As a result of The Marketing Directors' one-stop service, which set the bar for an entire industry of marketing specialists, developers have flocked to her for her superlative advice. Her client roster reads like a list of "Who's Who" in real estate, with names like Donald Trump, RFR/Davis, Metropolitan Housing Partners, Rose Associates on a quite lengthy and impressive list. The measure of her success is clearly evident in the high level of repeat business she secures.

Ms. Albert's many awards and honors are also a testament to the industry's recognition of her talents. Such prestigious organizations, as the National Sales & Marketing Council of the National Association of Home Builders, The Institute of Residential Marketing, The Associated Builders and Owners of New York and other groups, have showered The Marketing Directors with over 100 awards.

Although Ms. Albert is delighted by this recognition, she does not rest on her laurels. "Each development is an opportunity to create a new, strategic and tailored plan that will propel that unique product to success," says Ms. Albert. "No two properties are the same. They deserve a creativity, energy and insight that will set them apart and reach a targeted market in a dynamic, new way."

It is exactly that dedication to stellar service that has positioned Ms. Albert as a trailblazer and raised The Marketing Directors to its position as a top residential marketing firm in New York.

"We have come a long way from that one-room office," says Ms. Albert who recently increased her space at her current office at 750 Lexington Avenue, "but we are still growing and strengthening our business every single day. There is still so much to do."

With 25 years of success behind Ms. Albert, there is no question that The Marketing Directors will continue to get the job done.