Chief Executive Officer

About CCIM

The CCIM Institute was built on a foundation that has remained solid for over 50 years: the best teachers of commercial real estate investment principles are experienced and successful commercial real estate practitioners. By combining the best minds to develop and teach the industry's best practices, the CCIM Institute has helped thousands of students propel their careers and grow their businesses through CCIM’s educational coursework and passionate membership. Since 1967, the CCIM Institute has evolved into a global organization with more than 12,000 members.

Founded by Jay W. Levine, CCIM, the Institute's first president, and Jim McMichael, CCIM, the first designee, CCIM has built its reputation on delivering the most in-depth education and analytical tools available in the commercial real estate industry. The first courses were offered through the California Real Estate Association (now the California Association of REALTORS®) and led to the Certified Property Exchanger (CPE) designation.

Levine and McMichael recruited two successful students, Palmer Berge, CCIM, and Victor Lyon, CCIM, from one of the early classes to help develop the CCIM curriculum. In the CCIM Institute's early years, these instructors spent their days teaching courses and their nights writing course material on the backs of envelopes. Their dedication to sharing proven market, financial, and investment analysis methods evolved into the world-class education and technology products and services CCIM offers today.

As CCIM membership has grown over the years, these practitioner-focused traditions have been infused into the many member benefits and services provided by the CCIM Institute and its partners. Hundreds of Designees have not only been able to build their business through their CCIM membership but continue to contribute their time and talents in countless ways, including writing articles for the Institute's flagship publication, Commercial Investment Real Estate magazine, creating Excel-based financial tools, developing the industry-leading technology platform STDB, and rewriting the CCIM educational curriculum to incorporate innovative industry concepts, among many other efforts. It is these member-driven initiatives and contributions that have elevated the CCIM Institute's reputation as the world's premier commercial real estate organization.

CCIM’s Mission, Vision & Values

• Mission: To elevate our members to the highest levels of success in the commercial real estate profession.
• Vision: To shape the commercial real estate industry by being the most influential and internationally recognized organization.
• Values: Fiscally Responsible; Ethical; Global; State of the Art; Current; and Inclusive.

What is a CCIM?

A Certified Commercial Investment Member (CCIM) is a recognized expert in the disciplines of commercial and investment real estate. A CCIM is an invaluable resource to the commercial real estate owner, investor, and user, and is among an elite corps of about 7,500 professionals who hold the CCIM designation across North America and more than 30 countries. Nearly 4,000 additional professionals are pursuing the CCIM designation.

Since its founding more than 50 years ago, the institute has been educating real estate specialists across continents and industry categories. CCIM continues to guide the growth of professionals each year, including:

• Investors and investment counselors
• Asset managers
• Brokers
• Appraisers
• Corporate real estate executives
• Property managers
• Developers
• Institutional investors
• Commercial lenders
• Portfolio managers (loan servicing)
• Attorneys
• Bankers

The CCIM curriculum represents the core knowledge expected of commercial investment practitioners, regardless of the diversity of specializations within the industry. Following the coursework, candidates must submit a portfolio of closed transactions and/or consultations showing a depth of experience in the commercial investment field. After fulfilling these requirements, candidates must successfully complete a comprehensive examination to earn the CCIM designation. This designation process ensures that CCIMs are proficient not only in theory, but also in practice.

Conferred by the CCIM Institute, the CCIM designation was established in 1969. Courses leading to the designation are now offered throughout the world.

CCIM Chapters

An organization's success relies on its grassroots. CCIM Institute's Chapters form its local touchstones in the U.S., Canada, and globally. CCIM Chapters serve as boosters for CCIM training, sites for multiple CCIM courses, providers for scholarships for CCIM classes, and incubators for its future leaders. As the Institute constantly evolves and sets a higher standard for the commercial real estate industry, so have the 50+ Chapters within the CCIM Institute.

The Role

The Chief Executive Officer/Executive Vice President (CEO) of the CCIM Institute is responsible for all programmatic, financial, and operational aspects of the Institute. The CEO provides leadership and direction for all CCIM staff, including assisting the volunteer leadership as they develop and execute long-range goals, strategies, plans, and policies. This executive is responsible for the successful stewardship of the Institute’s resources and the effective management of the organization’s fiscal and operational health as directed by the CCIM Management Team and Board of Directors.

The CEO will recruit, retain, and motivate a high-performing staff, serve as a champion for diversity, equity and inclusion, customer service and accountability and cultivate a positive culture internally and externally. This executive is responsible for the development and oversight of efficient systems, processes, and will foster an organizational structure that supports an innovative and sustainable organization that is able to deliver value to CCIM’s members. The successful candidate will partner with the Board, Management Team, and staff to build upon outstanding educational content and experiences and create and implement a vision for the recruitment and retention of an engaged and growing membership fueled by a robust marketing and sales team as well as programs and services that add value to the membership and CCIM’s fiscal sustainability.

Under the general direction of the CCIM Board of Directors and its Management Team, the CEO’s specific responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Oversight of the day-to-day operations (financial, strategic, managerial, technologic) of CCIM.
• Review and revise CCIM’s business model, operations, and processes to ensure cost-efficient and effective operation. 
• Manage, direct, and evaluate the CCIM staff to accomplish the strategic goals and objectives in alignment with the Strategic Plan.
• Foster and maintain a member-first mindset and culture of accountability, with a focus on the delivery of KPIs.
• Deploy effective technology strategically to deliver CCIM’s education offerings and information to members and key constituents.
• In collaboration with the Board and Management Team, execute and refresh a long-term strategy that supports and facilitates CCIM’s relevance and growth; operationalize the Strategic Plan through the development, monitoring, and evaluation of the organization’s delivery on goals and objectives.
• Build and oversee a marketing and sales team that leads the identification, cultivation, and recruitment of new members to CCIM, with a focus on diversifying the composition of the membership. Further, the CEO will focus on the continued stewardship of existing members.
• Ensure opportunities exist for meaningful engagement between the CCIM Institute and CCIM members, volunteer leaders, chapter leadership, and other real estate related organizations; demonstrate accessibility and transparency and a constant willingness to meet member needs.
• Identify and pursue opportunities to diversify sales channels for CCIM coursework.

Candidate Profile

The CCIM Institute is seeking an innovative, accomplished, and collaborative leader. The CEO will have a customer service mentality as well as the business savvy and entrepreneurial spirit to help drive the development of new products/programs that will meet CCIM Institute member needs. The ideal candidate will possess management experience along with a demonstrated track record of effectively evaluating, building and leading a customer-oriented, high-performing staff. The successful candidate must work well in a team environment and be able to inspire and motivate staff and the membership. The new CEO will understand how to leverage staff, as well as the resources of the membership. The candidate will have prior experience successfully managing budgets and people, ideally within an organization of comparable scale to the CCIM Institute. The successful candidate will be a successful judge of talent and possess a track-record of fostering a culture of accountability, collaboration, and commitment. Further, the CEO will be an inspirational leader to the staff and encourage openness, transparency, inclusion, and mutual respect.

The ideal candidate will be results-oriented with a track record of success in leading organizations during a period of change, ideally through a period of growth. The new CEO will be skilled at working with Boards of Directors to articulate and create a vision for the future of the organization, while also being capable of changing course and shifting strategy as needed. The candidate should possess business savvy, offer creative and innovative ideas, and be able to facilitate conversations with the Board, broader membership, and other stakeholders to generate consensus around identified plans and priorities. These plans and priorities should include developing and implementing a marketing/member recruitment campaign focused on diversifying the membership, expanding programmatic and educational offerings, and enhancing partnerships with corporate leadership, thought leaders, and educational institutions.

The successful candidate may come from a variety of backgrounds—including association management, business, non-profit, academic leadership, or the real estate industry. The candidate will ideally have experience in a senior leadership role of a comparably sized organization and should possess an undergraduate degree; a graduate degree and/or additional professional certification would be beneficial.  A strong emphasis will be placed on the individual’s interpersonal skills and proven ability to deal with a broad range of individuals and perspectives in a collaborative and consensus-driven manner. The successful candidate must be a respectful leader and a good listener, able to work effectively with a wide set of stakeholders, while constantly advancing the Institute’s mission. The successful candidate will be respected, and a person of the highest personal and professional integrity. Finally, the CEO should have a balanced ego - an ability to recognize the strength of others while pushing back as appropriate.