Dreaming big takes Mosler all the way to the top: Bruce Mosler, President & CEO, Cushman & Wakefield.

The New York City real estate industry has no shortage of charismatic executives, but Cushman & Wakefield's president and CEO, Bruce Mosler, has managed to carve out a unique place as one of the most energetic and successful.

President of the company's U.S. operations for four years before being appointed president and CEO at the start of 2005, Mosler has earned a reputation for both establishing important initiatives for the firm and skillfully overseeing their realization.

Thanks in large part to his leadership, Cushman & Wakefield became the number one investment sales brokerage in the nation in 2004 as measured by the total value of transactions executed, beating out perennial industry leader, Eastdil.

During his tenure as president of U.S. operations, he vastly strengthened the company's retail services group and also its hotel investment sales capability, all the while forging a merger with Cushman Realty Corporation--which expanded even further the firm's west coast presence--and a fruitful partnership with Concordis Real Estate, the first and largest national minority and women-owned real estate services corporation.

Now charged with a global role, Mosler has made it a priority since his appointment, and even prior, to visit many of C&W's offices around the world, gauging foreign markets firsthand and getting to meet in person the firm's personnel who are so vital to his goal of establishing C&W as the preeminent global real estate services firm.

Mosler is proud to note, that C&W's capabilities are already impressive.

Even in developing markets like India, he explained, the firm has offices that offer the same level of sophistication and broker talent as its branches in the United States. His appointment promises the expansion of these global capabilities, the continued formation of strategically beneficial mergers, as well as the creative exploration of and entry into other facets of the real estate business, including the principal side.

Mosler's tireless work ethic, creativity, intelligence, leadership skills and bold vision were all attributes that were quickly noticed by Arthur Mirante, Mosler's predecessor, who enjoyed a stellar 20-year career leading the firm.

Identifying Mosler as an ideal successor, Mirante created the president of U.S. operations position primarily to groom him for the top position.

Mosler describes Mirante as one of his greatest mentors, and while Mosler plans to lead the firm along a more aggressive path combining both organic growth and merger-oriented acquisitive growth, he considers the day that Mirante decided to continue working for the firm after retirement, one of his best yet at C&W.

"Having Arthur around is having a bench of talent you can call and draw upon, and that's been enormously important for me," Mosler said.

"The fact that he elected to stay on is something that I consider one of my proudest accomplishments because I don't think it's often that a CEO stays after he steps down from the head position. The fact that he was willing to was an endorsement of me as a CEO, which really meant a lot to me."

"As a CEO you have to make tough decisions on a routine basis and Arthur has made so many tough decisions, he has been a great example. He is an incredible asset for this firm."

Mirante may have played an important role in preparing Mosler for the lead spot at one of the top real estate service firms, but the culture and responsibilities of an executive and the key attributes integral to the position's success are things that Mosler has been steeped in his entire life. They're even in his genes.

Mosler's father was the owner and president of Mosler Safe, a company started by Bruce's great-grandfather in the 1800s. The company's heyday came during Mosler's childhood, when it was one of the largest corporations in the world, constructing vaults for leading banks, financial institutions and reserves internationally, including Fort Knox.

From an early age, Mosler was constantly rubbing elbows with top politicians and major players in the corporate world and gained an ease in dealing with people of high rank.

His parents were also avid world travelers and sent Mosler for two years of schooling in Europe where he picked up French--a talent he recently displayed by addressing C&W's Paris office in its native tongue.

Mosler pointed to his upbringing for instilling within him a deep appreciation for different cultures and diversity around the world, essential attributes, he says, to the success of a global corporate leader.

Although some children of wealth may be content to enjoy the spoils of their parent's achievements, Mosler displayed fierce independence and an entrepreneurial streak from a young age. He was determined to realize success and dictate his own financial destiny.

After graduating from Duke University, he decided to go into real estate because he perceived it as an industry in which he could "make as much money or as little money as my own two feet would carry me. I really had no desire to have limitations put on myself."

Though he had big dreams from the start, he had to first deal with the immediate concerns of supporting himself and his new wife, Wendy, who he had met while at Duke.

"I wanted to have my own apartment, a decent car and to be able to go out to eat once in awhile. But paying off my credit card debts regularly was something that I also thought would have been nice," Mosler joked.

To get to a point where he could realize any of those goals, Mosler had to first withstand an incredibly difficult initiation into brokering.

"My first year in the business, I made virtually no money," Mosler said. "My second year, I made eight thousand dollars and my third year I made twenty six thousand. In my fourth year, things started to really cook."

"But I remember those first three years, they were torturous, they were tough. It was tough for my friends too, but we all made it."

When Mosler started to realize some success and the pressure of day-to-day survival was loosened, he again could return to pursuing his big dreams for ascending through the real estate ranks. Those dreams, he says, were what quickly set him apart.

"It's why some brokers do ten thousand square foot deals instead of one hundred thousand square foot deals," Mosler said.

"It's not about capability, it's about confidence and being able to make transitions in your own life, from smaller to bigger things."

His rise in the real estate industry has been profound, but Mosler understands as well that not all transitions ebb in a positive direction.

After selling Mosler Safe in the early 1970s, Mosler's father, who Bruce calls his greatest mentor, made some poor personal financial decisions.

"He got a dose of tough times," Mosler said.

"But my father always had a saying that you meet the same people going down the ladder as you did going up."

"Keeping that in mind, he always treated people the way he himself wanted to be treated and that was a huge lesson in humility for me that he taught me and that I have strived to live by."

"And true to his word, when he hit those rough times it never changed his life or the way he was or the friends that he had."

His father's experience, Mosler says, helps him keep his own success in perspective.

"Just like him, I'll never let my bank account rule the way I treat people or the way I live my life."