Leticia Velez
Senior Corporate Accountant
Waterton
As a benefit of supporting the Goldie Gala, sponsors at a certain level are able to select employees who can participate in The Goldie Initiative’s virtual mentoring match technology. The platforms allows The Goldie Initiative to build upon its track record of providing amazing mentoring opportunities to Goldie Scholars by bringing the mentor experience to emerging female leaders at its supporting partner organizations in commercial real estate across all sub-industries.
For Waterton, their longstanding partnership and sponsorship of the Goldie Gala provided access to this mentoring opportunity for several employees, including Leticia Velez, Senior Corporate Accountant. Velez was initially selected to participate in The Goldie Initiative’s mentoring platform by Wateron’s Susan Schuetz, Senior Vice President of Corporate Accounting and Treasury. Through the virtual mentor matching portal, Leticia was able to book one-on-one hybrid mentoring sessions with seasoned executives who offer guidance for professional growth. The goal of the mentorship portal is to connect a wide variety of extraordinary leaders in the CRE industry with early to mid-career women at sponsor companies.
Velez engaged in eight mentoring sessions, a blend of both virtual and in-person meetings, with committed mentors, who volunteered their time to give back to female leaders connected to them through The Goldie Initiative. Some of her mentors included Carolina Avila, Vera Halicki, Laura Schueren, and Amy Hall. Velez reflected on how useful and important was for her to meet women in commercial real estate and begin to build her own community of leaders and advisors.
Through her connections, Velez took away these key lessons from mentors she met through The Goldie Initiative:
Leadership and Effective Community
“Presenting in meetings is important and shows leadership and effective communication skills. This advice has helped me speak up and take initiative in meetings.”
Empathy
“Learning to be be empathetic to others was not something I expected to take away from mentors. I realized how important it is to understand and listen to others at work.”
Value of Networking
“It is important to grow your community. Each mentor connected me to someone else, whether it was a person that provided me with additional information, other real estate groups, or even other coworkers at Waterton! I am also grateful to each mentor for trusting me enough to connect me with other important contacts.”
Advocating for Yourself
“Ask for what you want. While simple enough, advocating for yourself can be the biggest challenge of navigating your professional career.”
For Velez, mentorship allowed her to begin to cultivate an ecosystem where she feels empowered, connected, and equipped to contribute meaningfully to her professional community. Mentorship has helped her navigate through challenges and embrace opportunities.
The Goldie Initiative’s virtual mentorship platform will go live in January for all sponsors of the 2023 Goldie Gala at silver, gold, platinum, and diamond levels.