Julie Smith - Smooth Operator (#48) - a podcast by Coe Enterprises

from 2021-08-04T21:45:40

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John Coe & Julie Smith




Bio





Julie A. Smith, Chief Administrative Officer, The Bozzuto Group









Show Notes





Current Role





  • Currently Chief Administrative Officer for 5 yrs. now. Spent first 25 yrs. of career running Property Management. Toby Bozzuto assumed CEO role when she made the transition to CAO role (5:00)
    • Suggested her role change would offer opportunities to others to run Property Management (6:00)
  • Mike Schlegel is COO who runs P&L units (7:00)
  • CAO role is all non operating functions (7:15)
  • Vertical growth of The Bozzuto Group (9:00)
    • Initial intention to manage their own assets (9:15)
    • Started in 1989 and was “cash strapped” (9:30)
    • An equity partner asked them to manage the property on a third party basis in the early 1990s (9:40)
      • First project for institutional owners, which became a theme for third party management (11:00)
    • Action steps- Focused on revenue first (11:30)
      • Why wasn’t top line growing? (12:00)
      • Looked at all aspects of project to increase rents and reduce vacancy (12:30)
      • Setting up variable compensation to align rewards of employees (13:00)
      • No control over “fixed expenses” (14:00)
      • Variable expenses are “nickels on the floor” (14:20)




Origins and Education





  • Grew up in Niagara Falls, NY (14:30)
  • Parents were school teachers (15:00)
  • Area driven by industrial activities primarily (15:20)
    • Love Canal issue negatively impacted area (15:30)
  • Parents grew up in 1930s (15:50)
    • Dad a Principal (16:00)
    • Mom was a home economics teacher- she learned about details in cooking that spilled over to her “eye for details” in most of her activities (16:30)
    • Her Dad was loved by students- treated people with respect (18:00)
      • Elementary school Principal who dealt well with parents of challenging students (18:45)
      • Special relationship with her- all her girlfriends would share with him (19:50)
  • Attended State University of New York- Oswego (20:30)
    • Father went there (21:00)
    • Could afford it (21:15)
    • Business and Communications major (21:30)
    • Spent her Junior year in Copenhagen, Denmark (21:45)