For decades, the people who made large real estate deals in this city were mostly men and white people.

But that is slowly starting to change. The movement towards greater diversity gained some momentum this week with the appointment of Jeanne Pinado as Executive Vice President at Colliers, a leading Boston real estate company.

The longtime executive director of Madison Park Development Corp. – a Roxbury-based non-profit organization – Pinado will be a rare black woman to reach the top ranks of the city’s major real estate companies. She joins Colliers’ capital markets team – which sets up financing packages for large deals – at a time when city and state officials, and even private owners, are granting greater importance of attracting a more diverse range of investors for often lucrative commercial sales and construction projects.

“It’s important now. It has always been important. It just hasn’t really been accomplished, ”said David Goodhue, who heads the Boston office of Colliers. “Even during my first conversation with Jeanne, I saw someone who could not only bring an element of diversity to the table, but also help us build a platform that we can all be proud of.

For Pinado, it is in a way a return to his roots.

She holds an MBA in Finance from Columbia University in New York and worked in real estate finance – including at Massachusetts Housing Investment Corp – before joining Madison Park in 1998. During her stay, She has led the funding of a number of projects – including the redevelopment of Hibernian Hall, as well as several new apartment buildings. She transformed Madison Park from a small nonprofit to a staff of 40. before resigning in 2019. But she’s also created a contact list that ranges from community organizers and small business owners in Roxbury to downtown finance captains.

Last year, Mayor Martin J. Walsh appointed her an alternate member of the Boston Zoning Appeals Board (a position Pinado said she plans to keep and would recuse herself from cases where Colliers might have an interest. ).

This spectrum of relationships, she said, will help Colliers clients tap a wider range of potential investors and navigate sometimes complex conditions across a wider range of neighborhoods.

“I got to know a lot of people in Boston. It’s part of the job of running a non-profit organization, ”she said. “I now hope to use my finance and real estate skills and connections to help our clients.”

She takes on her new role as large public landowners – such as the Massachusetts Port Authority and the Boston Planning & Development Agency – begin to place greater emphasis on diversity, both in development teams and their investors, when they award public prizes. sites For the development. It is also a priority for private sector clients, especially universities and hospitals in the region.

“It now permeates the whole of society in terms of what institutions are looking for in terms of who they want as a development partner,” said Frank Petz, who heads the Colliers capital markets team.

Then there’s the feeling – increasingly recognized in Boston’s predominantly white development firm – that an industry that is doing so much to shape the city should be more like the place it is transforming. .

In recent years, real estate companies have launched internships and other programs aimed at building a pool of young talent from more diverse backgrounds. But it will also require experienced leaders like Pinado.

After three decades of working in real estate in the city, she is …

Read the article as it originally appeared in Bollyside here.