Smart Growth America is pleased to announce today the hiring of Monica Parikh as the Deputy Director of LOCUS: Responsible Real Estate Developers and Investors, a program of Smart Growth America.
Formerly a principal and consultant for real estate advisors to institutional investors, Parikh has created investment strategies, negotiated advisory agreements, designed risk management standards, supervised securities registration and compliance. She has led industry benchmarking, accounting and valuation, performance measurement and reporting initiatives. Parikh was also the executive director of an innovative global health non-profit in telemedicine, securing global health grants, presenting at prestigious global health technology conferences, and implementing administrative protocols in rural health clinics in Uganda.
As Deputy Director of LOCUS, Parikh will be working to expand the program’s network of real estate developers, investors, and advocates. She will also serve as a national policy strategist, and will help bring together leaders in the responsible real estate industry.
Monica took a few moments to speak with us about her past experience, her interest in public policy, what challenges she sees ahead and how she plans on approaching them.
Tell us about what you’ve been doing up until now.
For the last several years I was a consultant to a Seattle-based firm that sought to create a new investment fund for institutional investors. My career has been mainly focused on creating investment strategies, managing advisory agreements, risk management, and working with industry organizations to create performance measurement and investment reporting standards. I also spent a short but very exciting time as the executive director of a global health non-profit, securing grants, presenting at health technology conferences, and setting up clinics in very rural areas of Uganda. We were headquartered in a tent encampment in the Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, home of Batwa (pygmy) tribes and mountain gorillas. I loved the work and the people!
What about your private sector experience do you think will translate to being at a non-profit?
My roles in the private sector included matching investor capital to real estate investment projects. The firms I’ve been involved with were leaders in Responsible Property Investing (RPI) concepts and implementation. I’ve worked with industry organizations to develop definitions for and measure the returns from RPI, and positive Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) impact investing. Joining LOCUS allows me to continue aspects of that work, to create greater opportunities for developers and investors seeking financing and regulatory change to promote good neighborhoods.
What made you want to shift gears to advocacy?
I have always been attracted to public policy. My parents promoted good citizenship, and valued public service very highly. My father was a state assistant attorney general, and my mother worked in accounting for a county agency. They taught that individuals have an important role in community success. My education followed the same pattern, so by the time I went to college and found that public policy was a real career path, I was very excited.
What are the biggest policy problems from a real estate investor’s perspective?
Developers always want to create great projects, but have to make a profit. Investors need to balance risk and return on capital they invest in projects—particularly institutional investors such as pension funds, whose retirees’ financial security depends on the profitability of investments. Communities need safe, affordable and accessible living, shopping and work space, and economic stability from jobs that provide living wages. Balancing the needs of place makers, place users and the financial tools available to create them is a real challenge. But it’s being done successfully all over the world, and when we collect and replicate best practices, all of the players benefit, individually and as a community.
How can we solve those problems?
I firmly believe that market-based solutions, paired with equality accelerators, are the most rapid, holistic and sustainable approaches. We know that people prefer to live near their work, and allowing mixed-use, mixed income neighborhoods produces access to quality education. A robust, educated work force in turn produces economic strength across the board. It is in our economic interest to create transportation systems that get people to and from work and home, that we have enjoyable, shared open spaces, and demographic and income diversity.
What part of LOCUS’s work are you most excited to work on moving forward?
Evangelizing! Bringing more developers and investors to the table to educate law and policy makers, and promoting access to capital for responsible investment and development.
Monica Parikh would be happy to talk with you about your projects, responsible real estate development, and LOCUS’s current work. She can be reached at [email protected].