Peacemaker, Shapiro, always exceeding expectations.

When Dean Shapiro was promoted to manager of CB Richard Ellis's midtown brokerage in 2003, a question quickly arose among some of the managers and brokers in the firm: Who is Dean Shapiro?

The question was understandable. CBRE had just acquired powerhouse Manhattan brokerage, Insignia/ESG, where Shapiro had been a rising star, and not everyone at the mega-firm was familiar with many of his or her new coworkers. But there was also a sense of skepticism that came with Shapiro's appointment. After all, although Shapiro certainly stood out as accomplished candidate with a background of diverse experience and a track record of success, he didn't, as compared to some of his predecessors and peers, seem to fit the prototype for the position.

For all its sophistication, its number crunching, financial analyses and power point presentations, the mastery of which has been touted as all important to winning business with large, important clients, New York City brokerage has always glorified and firmly maintained a place for the maverick broker, the entrepreneur who lands big deals probably the same way brokers did 50 years ago, with persistence, charm, and maybe a few well-placed connections.

Unsurprisingly, it's this kind of person who typically is recruited to fill management positions in New York firms, where market insiders are prized and outsiders, no matter how talented, are often looked at perhaps as minor leaguers. It's a sometimes-unfair bias that seems to be an inherent byproduct of the egos created by what is probably one of the most competitive and lucrative commercial real estate markets in the world.

While Shapiro had considerable experience executing leasing transactions and had spent the beginning of his career at the Edward S. Gordon Company's Manhattan office, the former stomping grounds of so many legendary brokers in the city, the bulk of his background really was in consulting and management. Feeding the perception that he was distant from the Manhattan brokerage scene was that, in the years prior to his promotion, he had been stationed in Stamford where he led Insignia/ESG's brokerage operations in Connecticut and Westchester, markets that probably seemed as far away as Idaho to some Manhattan brokers.

"He had come out of a consulting and analytic orientation rather than sales," said John Powers, a co-chairman at CBRE who had recruited Shapiro to ESG in the late 1980s and was one of the executives responsible for his promotion. "He didn't start as a cold-call canvasser where a lot of our top brokers have. So right away, a lot of people say, well, we want a salesman.

"They said who is this guy? He's not a player in New York."

Although CBRE's management structure seems to put a particular emphasis on brokerage ability--its top executives are also among its top brokers--Shapiro's slightly different background turned out to be exactly what the firm needed.

With its market share and enormous size, it's hard to imagine a time when CBRE wasn't one of the most dominant real estate service firms in the city. But before 2003, the company, which was more of a national power than a Manhattan leader, had trouble merely breaking into the top five among brokerage firms in the city. Its $415 million acquisition of Insignia/ ESG in 2003 changed that instantly, converting it virtually overnight into one of the dominant players. The deal, a landmark acquisition in the storied history of the city's brokerage industry, didn't come without its share of turmoil however. Shapiro's predecessor, Joe Harbert, defected to Cushman & Wakefield not long after the acquisition in what some insiders called an acrimonious departure. The market, meanwhile, was in the doldrums, at just about the trough of the sharp downturn it suffered in the wake of the dot-com bust and 9/11.

Desperate times have a way of dredging up negative feelings and a mood of dissatisfaction began to permeate among some of the brokers, who wondered quietly if having top dealmakers as executives of the firm truly offered them a fair shot at advancement and at landing big deals and also if they'd become forgotten bit players in a firm of such size.

"I think people wanted to know they had a neutral advocate," Shapiro said. "Someone who was truly there to help them be successful. There definitely was the feeling that people here wanted to know there were going to be opportunities for professional development and opportunities to advance their careers. And that's one of the things that I brought to the table, I was a guy who the brokers knew was going to be there to help them advance."

Shapiro seemed to be skirting along the fringe here of what is sure to be a controversial subject at not only CBRE, but the numerous other prominent real estate service firms in the city where executives are also top brokers. When asked if there is a downside to having this kind a management structure, a conflicted look flashed across Shapiro's face. But he then offered only sincere praise for the firm's top executives, with some of whom, like Powers and global chairman Steve Siegel, he has had longstanding close working relationships.

"It's an asset to have power brokers like Mary Ann Tighe and Bob Alexander," Shapiro said. "If you're a broker trying to land a deal and you can bring them into your corner, that's the kind of thing that grabs attention from tenants. It's a tremendous advantage for brokers to have access to that kind of star power and their amazing ability as brokers."

Nonetheless, Shapiro himself doesn't seem to harbor great ambitions to bulk up his deal flow, a fact that has helped cast him as a confidant and ally for his brokers rather than someone with whom they feel they may be in competition with. From the start of his tenure, Shapiro set out to create office policies that facilitated objectivity in the workplace and that fairly hashed out commission disputes, important measures that helped dispel fears of favoritism. His leadership helped advance the firm past the hiccups it experienced just after the acquisition and transition into the surefooted juggernaut that it is today.

"There was a tumult created by the acquisition, a lot of dust was kicked up," Shapiro said. "We had some people leave, not a lot, but it didn't create the kind of image that we wanted so I looked at how we could turn the tide and change direction. And I think that we've been really successful these past two years."

Recruited by Powers to join ESG as a consultant, Shapiro quickly found his way into a managerial role, helping to establish the firm's Westchester office in 1991 and lease a 3 million s/f portfolio it had secured. He then spent time as a consultant for General Telephone and Electronics (a telecom giant that was eventually absorbed by Verizon in 2000), teaming with their in house real estate department to execute various leasing, subleasing, and property sale assignments.

"I got to see what it was like from the other side, from the client's perspective," Shapiro said. "We often had to hire brokerage firms to help us with real estate transactions in areas where ESG didn't have a presence and I got to see what made a good broker and also what kind of things were a turnoff to a client. In this case I was the client, it was a unique perspective for me."

On a property disposition in Syracuse for GTE, Shapiro said he received a valuable insight on what made for a winning business pitch.

"We interviewed three brokerage firms for the assignment," Shapiro said. "One group came in and told us how much business they did in the area, the second one came in and gave us a loose presentation on the city with a video, and the third came in and gave detailed information about alternative uses for the building that would yield a potentially

higher selling price, they talked about zoning restrictions and tax issues that could come up. They really did their homework and invested a lot into the presentation. It made for an obvious decision and we felt good rewarding their hard work. It showed me that as a broker, one of the most important things you can do is tailor your service to directly address the specific needs of your client."

ESG soon merged with Insignia, which was trying to build its national network, an undertaking that Shapiro voiced his willingness to take part in. He became an assistant to Insignia/ESG's chairman Steve Siegel and helped plan and execute the firm's growth in markets around the country.

"Dean played an integral role in our expansion," Siegel said. "He advised us on the best method of expansion in certain markets, whether to building an office from the ground up or through acquisitions. He helped create better lines of communication between offices and helped institute business protocols and management policies that facilitated a standardization of service and a national network. Dean was the kind of guy that rewarded you every time you took a chance on him and gave him a position of higher responsibility. He has a way of always exceeding expectations."

After working closely with Siegel through much of the mid 1990s, Shapiro took over Insignia/ESG's growing Connecticut and Westchester brokerage operation in 1999.

He immediately was faced with residual turmoil within the office that stemmed from a stormy acquisition two years earlier of Rostenberg-Doern, what had been one of Insignia/ESG's archrivals in that market. Shapiro moved the firm to a different office to erase the feeling among brokers who had been as Rostenberg-Doern that they were on enemy turf and began to erase the bad blood and encourage a sense of camaraderie and teamwork. Shapiro's efforts produced fast results and the branch quickly came to dominate its market. His ability to repair internal tensions proved to be an important skill when he was eventually tapped to head up the midtown Manhattan office in 2003.

"When we looked around it wasn't a difficult choice at all because Dean had worked well with brokers, he knew the whole consulting group, had a lot of friends in New York, and had experience in management and with the national operation," Powers said of Shapiro's promotion. "So it was wow, he has his ticket punched in a lot of spots. He'd done a great job in Westchester and Connecticut, he was almost outgrowing it in some sense. We knew he'd be a great fit and he's proved us right."