Ted Rogers MBA students pitch investment ideas to Parkbridge and QuadReal
A group of Ted Rogers MBA students seized a significant growth and networking opportunity when they approached a VP from a global real estate firm to collaborate on a project, leading to a presentation in front of executives this summer.
The initiative began in June when Swela Bashir, a Ted Rogers MBA student from the Management Consulting Capstone Project, reached out to Brandon Francis, Vice President of Investment Management, Residential at the global real estate firm QuadReal (external link, opens in new window) via LinkedIn.
“I have a passion for real estate, so I spent some time researching and contacting reputable companies and asking them if they would be interested in being our client for our project,” Bashir explained. “Brandon messaged me back and thought the idea was interesting, and that’s how the whole experience came to be.”
Capstone course
The Capstone course gives students the opportunity to develop their skills by managing an actual consulting project with real clients, ranging from start-ups and small businesses to large organizations like QuadReal and Parkbridge (external link, opens in new window) , Canada’s leading operator, developer and owner of more than 55 residential communities and 30+ recreational RV Resort communities across the country.
For this year’s session, the five Ted Rogers MBA students (Tom Jang, Matt Bidzinski, Stafford Henry, Nabeel Mohammed and Swela Bashir), were tasked with identifying one or more secondary markets or mid-sized cities with attractive features like growth potential and affordability that could interest Parkbridge and QuadReal for future investment.
To guide the project along and help the students get the most out of the project, Francis engaged Parkbridge’s Michael Pennington, a Senior Analyst on the Asset Management and Acquisitions team, to mentor the MBA students.
“I work closely under Brandon and he’s always looking for opportunities to push me out of my comfort zone,” said Pennington. Meeting biweekly with the students, Pennington gave students tips and tricks on how to conduct research and analysis to identify potential investment opportunities, and how to improve their proposal and presentation skills before the big day.
Final presentation
The final presentation included an analysis of three markets – Barrie, Ajax and Pickering – and outlined detailed statistics regarding its demographics, average household incomes, cost of living and future population growth. The students made recommendations tailored to Parkbridge and QuadReal, aiming to guide future investment decisions and direction.
“One of the best pieces of advice [Michael] gave us was to prepare answers for all the questions you anticipate the audience asking – and sure enough, we had a lot of questions!” Bashir explained. “We felt confident though because he taught us the importance of forward-thinking.”
By working with the Ted Rogers MBA students, Parkbridge and QuadReal demonstrated how they can use their expertise to mentor and guide the next generation in our industry. Giving the students real-world experience and feedback also helps them learn how to tackle market analysis and explore different investment strategies.
Valuable learnings
Swela reached out to numerous individuals on LinkedIn to collaborate with for her group's project. Her advice to other students who are seeking to fulfill their goals is to embrace rejection because it can always lead to a transformative opportunity.
“When I graduated, I actually got a job as a researcher for a commercial real estate information company. This experience has taught me so much about the industry, like the government grants available that developers can incentivize and the various ways you can look at supply and competition in any given market or demographic,” said Swela.
