Introducing your 2025 NAIOP SFBA President Adam Voelker
Introducing your 2025 NAIOP SFBA President Adam Voelker
Adam Voelker is the Market Leader and a Principal for Trammell Crow Company’s Northern California office. In this role, he is responsible for day-to-day operations of the office and strategic oversight, including new development and investment activity across the company’s three primary asset classes (industrial, multifamily and office/life science).
Message from Your 2025 Chapter President: Adam Voelker
Serving as President in 2025 alongside top notch commercial real estate professionals and dedicated volunteers in our region is a true honor. Having participated in our chapter for the last ten years and previously in Washington D.C., I’ve built friendships and a professional network that would not have been possible without NAIOP. While segments of the commercial real estate business are experiencing challenging market conditions, our chapter is laser focused on delivering value to our membership. With approximately 120-chapter volunteers across programming and committees, we are here to serve you!
On behalf of the NAIOP SFBA leadership team, I want to share our objectives which will flow through the annual agenda, committee meetings and chapter events.
- Serve as an effective advocate for commercial real estate policies
- Serve as a collaborative educational event and content provider
- Operate as a financially sound organization
- Operate as a diverse and well-connected network
- Serve as a resource for career development and providing valuable opportunities for all career stages
What are your top priorities for 2025
As President, two key themes will remain top of mind in 2025 – collaboration and thriving committees/programs.
Collaboration
For me, the importance and meaning of collaboration has been directly correlated with the gray hair that I’m gaining. This is true in both my personal and professional life. So, if you see me with a jet-black beard again, something has gone awry… Ok, joking aside. I believe that collaboration and partnership is everything in real estate. Our business is human, emotive and requires labor -- no matter the product type or investment strategy, real estate is a people business. With NAIOP, as a volunteer organization, I am hopeful that our board and committee members enjoy the experience. Time is precious and dedicating this finite resource to NAIOP should feel rewarding. In December 2024, the board and committee leaders participated in a “strategic planning session”. It was scheduled for 5 hours – yuck. BUT, it was a rewarding investment of time and it passed by quickly because collaboration was on big display and the participants all cared about the goal – continuing to strengthen NAIOP SFBA. We will continue to drive a collaborative spirit in 2025 throughout the organization - meeting in person (sorry, Zoom), mixing up meeting agendas, encouraging fun. Enough with the soft and squishy, but I do believe it matters, a lot.
One actionable way we intend to collaborate in 2025 is working with our neighbors, the Silicon Valley and Sacramento NAIOP chapters. Many of our members and sponsor companies participate across the chapters – certainly they work and invest across the regions that the chapters represent. We will try to find ways to work together to offer rich programming to our member base. Stay tuned.
Thriving Committees and Programs
I’d like to highlight a couple of examples where SFBA volunteers have contributed significant amounts of time to stand up programs or initiatives, which are now taking off. The NAIOP Executive Development Program (NED) is a unique program developed by our Chapter, grounded in neuroscience-backed learning for impact. The program leads its dedicated cohort of 20 participants through a 6-month personal development journey that not only builds upon their existing skills but also develops key leadership and management expertise to help them grow professionally and personally – providing tools to take their careers to the next level. This program has gained momentum through our chapter and may have its largest class to date.
Our chapter has created two political action committees: the NAIOP San Francisco Bay Area Candidate PAC and the NAIOP San Francisco Bay Area Issues PAC. Operating in California presents a unique set of challenges and its important that our organization play an active role in monitoring and informing change. When comparing the SFBA PAC initiatives to other chapters, we have significant room for growth. The groundwork has been laid by key volunteers in our chapter, and we intend to highlight the opportunity that these PACs provide for our industry and member companies for NAIOP to serve as a strong voice in local politics.
Finally, I would like to thank our sponsors, members and volunteers who are instrumental in the success of our chapter. We are committed to driving value and delivering on the organization’s key pillars – networking, education and legislative action.
It’s an honor to serve NAIOP and I’m grateful for the opportunity.
Adam Voelker
