The luncheon program, held at the University Club and attended by over 300 industry professionals, featured remarks by Bob Sulentic, Global CEO, CBRE; a panel discussion, CRE NextGen: The Next Generation of Commercial Real Estate Leaders; and the award presentation to Durburg by Charlie Wurtzebach, Chairman of the Department of Real Estate and the Douglas & Cynthia Crocker Endowed Director of the Real Estate Center.
As part of the award, a $220,000 scholarship program, the Chicago Commercial Real Estate Industry Endowed Scholarship Fund, was established by friends, colleagues and associates of Durburg.
In his opening remarks, Sulentic cited reasons for being at the event, including to honor a friend and colleague and to support DePaul University as it strives to attract and educate bright talent.
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Bob Sulentic, Global CEO, CBRE
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Characterizing Durburg's jobs as "one of the biggest in the world in commercial real estate", Sulentic praised him, saying, "He embodies the rarest and most important skills in business, the skill of leadership. He reflects positively on DePaul."
He thanked DePaul for educating Jack, and said,
"We are thrilled to support your endowment here at DePaul. You have built the best real estate education program at the university level in Chicago; and this is a city of world class universities."
The cornerstone of the luncheon program was CRE NextGen: The Next Generation of Commercial Real Estate Leaders. The panel discussion featured Andy Gloor, Managing Principal, Sterling Bay; Curt Bailey, President, Related Midwest; and Kim Adams, Managing Director, JP Morgan. The three, moderated by Sulentic, discussed a variety of career-oriented topics, ranging from how they got their start in real estate, significant inflexion points in their careers and the most important elements of their legacies.
Once presented with the distinguished achievement award, Durburg addressed the gathering and said, "I am standing in front of all of you, humbled to receive this award. I can trace back a lot of my success to DePaul, and the opportunities the program gave to me. I'm grateful."
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Charlie Wurtzebach, Chairman of the Department of Real Estate at DePaul University; Jack Durburg, CEO, the Americas, CBRE and Misty Johanson, Interim Dean, Driehaus College of Business
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He noted that one of the inflexion points in his career was the experience of getting an MBA at DePaul at night while working during the day as a broker. "The program was excellent," he said. I could walk there from my office which made it feasible."
He added that he had zero chance of being hired (by JLL) without his DePaul MBA.
Durburg thanked everyone who contributed to the Chicago Commercial Real Estate Industry Endowed Scholarship Fund. He pledged to help "take good care of these funds, and distribute them in the right way".
He concluded by saying, "We can all be proud of the opportunities we are giving students to bring up the next generation in the industry."
