Foerster Named Inaugural C. Bradley Olson RE Faculty Fellow
The C. Bradley Olson Real Estate Faculty Fellow is named in honor of Brad Olson, Senior Lecturer and Program Director from 1999 to 2005.
The Cornell Program in Real Estate is pleased to announce that Mark Foerster has been named the first C. Bradley Olson Real Estate Faculty Fellow. The Faculty Fellow is named in honor of Brad Olson (BS ’62), a Senior Lecturer, Advisory Board member, and past Director of the Program in Real Estate, and recognizes a visiting real estate professional who teaches one semester per year and who stands to make a lasting impact on the program and its students.The faculty fellow was made possible through the generosity of several members of the Cornell Real Estate Council as well as support through annual fund contributions, and serves to permanently endow the position in the Program.
“The opportunity to come back to Cornell where (my wife) Lila and I started our lives together…has been tremendously fulfilling. We are very fortunate to have enjoyed an exciting and successful career in real estate where a few key mentors made major differences in my professional life,” Olson said, adding that he was motivated to return to Ithaca “to give back to our graduate students the same gifts we have received over the years.”
Olson succeeded Bob Abrams as director of the Program in Real Estate in July, 1999, and served in that role until August of 2005. Since then, Olson has remained active in the program, continuing to teach Residential Development in the spring and serving as coach and mentor for the National Real Estate Challenge and the ULI Hines Student Urban Design Competition, among other activities. Until Fall 2007, he also taught Real Estate Development Process, an introductory course that was recently handed over to Tom Samuels, the Paul D. Rubacha Faculty Fellow. Commenting on the significance of the Faculty Fellow to the Program in Real Estate, which he calls “finest offering of its kind in the country,” Olson said: “I have always felt that our core strength is the ability to offer students the ‘real-world’ perspective of practicing professionals. This position will make it possible for that strength to remain and grow, and in this way the gifts of our Cornell alumni and friends honor both me and the program.”
Foerster joined the faculty this spring as co-instructor of the Project Workshop class, popularly known as the Capstone course. The Capstone is the culminating course of the master’s degree curriculum, and requires second-year students to develop comprehensive analyses, financial projections, and designs for a particular development opportunity, the site of which changes each year. This year’s site is located in Tysons Corner, Virginia, on a parcel of land owned by shopping-mall REIT The Macerich Company.
Foerster said he was “very pleased” to learn of his appointment: “[It] inspires me to see what more I can bring to the table each week as I work with our students in Capstone,” adding, “Brad has had a distinguished career in real estate, and he has made many important contributions to the industry and to Cornell.”
The Olson Faculty Fellow is just the second endowed faculty fellow position in the Program’s history, joining the Paul D. Rubacha Real Estate Faculty Fellow in recognizing the importance of practical experience applied in the classroom.
“Alumni, faculty, and friends have shown their appreciation for the enduring impact Brad has had on read estate at Cornell in establishing this legacy in his name,” said David Funk, director of the program, adding “Brad has been such a mentor to me, and to countless students, and it is gratifying to see his contributions recognized through the Olson Faculty Fellow.”
Olson described himself as feeling “both honored and humbled,” by the endowment. “My contributions are a small part of a much bigger story here,” he said, alluding to the collaboration that has always been a hallmark of the program.
Carl Neuss, Principal and CEO of Pacific Cascade Group and PRE Advisory Board member, made the initial gift to the endowment nearly two years ago in recognition of Olson’s tireless dedication to the program. "I am extremely pleased that Brad’s great contribution to the Cornell Program in Real Estate has been recognized through the founding of the Olson Real Estate Faculty Fellow endowment. For me, Brad's energy and commitment to the Program over the past decade truly has been a wonder to behold,” said Neuss. “My heartfelt congratulations and thanks to both Brad and Mark for their important roles in the program’s growing legacy.”
Timm Reynolds, Chairman, Horizon Genetics, Inc., helped put the endowment over the top. "Through his hard work, energy and devotion, Brad was instrumental in the building one of the premier programs in real estate in the country at Cornell. In my opinion, there is no more fitting way to honor him and his many contributions than by establishing this fellowship,” said Reynolds. Of Mark Foerster’s appointment, he said, “I am absolutely delighted that Mark will be the first fellow. He is a seasoned real estate professional who will help make a great program even better."
Brad Olson is the former president of The Carson Companies, a privately-owned developer, owner and manager of industrial, flex, and commercial properties in California and the Southwest. Prior to his work with Carson, he was president of community development divisions for The Irvine Company in Orange County, California, where he was responsible for the planning, entitlement, and development of communities in Irvine, Tustin, Orange, Laguna Beach, and Newport Beach.
Mark Foerster is Executive Vice President of Northern Capital Group, Inc., a real estate investment, management and development company based in Rochester, New York. From June, 2005 through May, 2007, he was Executive Vice President of Macerich East Development, LLC, Macerich’s east coast development affiliate. In that capacity, he worked to obtain government approvals for the rezoning of Tysons Corner Center, a super-regional mall located in McLean, Virginia. As a result of this rezoning, this 80-acre mall property will be transformed over a period of years to include a transit-oriented, mixed used development of 3.5 million square feet. Currently, he is also the interim CEO of the Farash Corporation, a Rochester-based corporation that owns 5,000 apartment units and 400,000 square feet of commercial space in New York and Florida. Prior to joining Northern Capital and Macerich, Foerster practiced real estate law in Rochester for over two decades, first as a Partner with Harris Beach, then as Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Wilmorite Properties, Inc. He is a graduate of Davidson College and the Syracuse University College of Law.