Tom Samuels Named Inaugural Rubacha Real Estate Faculty Fellow

Visiting Real Estate Development Professor Recipient of Faculty Fellowship

The Cornell Program in Real Estate announces that Tom Samuels has been named as the inaugural Paul D. Rubacha Real Estate Faculty Fellow. The Faculty Fellow is named in honor of Paul Rubacha (BS ’72, MBA ’73), a long-time member of the Program’s Advisory Board and advocate for real estate at Cornell, 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.

Paul Rubacha

Samuels, who is teaching the Real Estate Development Process (CRP 532) course this fall, has been a frequent guest lecturer at Cornell. When he is not teaching, Mr. Samuels is Executive Vice President of Higgins Development in Chicago as the partner in charge of large-scale development for Higgins’ property holdings as well as their public sector clients across North America. His expertise in master planning, design management, contract authority and real estate development in general brings the real world into the classroom.

“I was gratified to learn that I was named the Rubacha Real Estate Faculty Fellow,” said Samuels of the appointment, adding “I have had a commitment to bringing practical real estate development experience to Cornell, and the practitioner focus on the Rubacha Faculty Fellow is a perfect fit with my interest in contact with the students and concentration on my teaching the real estate development process as a whole -- I really appreciate the opportunity of serving Cornell in this way.”

Rubacha, a principal with Ashley Capital LLC since 1985 and CEO, has been a guest lecturer, conference panelist, and advisor to the Cornell Program in Real Estate since graduating in the early 1970s. The spirit behind the Rubacha Real Estate Faculty Fellow was to recognize the central contribution that practitioner expertise and teaching insight has on students in the two-year graduate real estate program.

“Cornell has played an important part in my life for nearly forty years,” said Rubacha, adding “The personal and professional benefits that I have enjoyed are of such value to me and my family, and the opportunity to give back to the University and its students gives me great satisfaction."

Ashley Capital owns and operates roughly twenty-five million square feet of warehouse/industrial and office property throughout the eastern half of the United States, making it one of the largest private owners in this category. Rubacha, who oversees all facets of acquisitions, development and management, served in senior roles within the real estate departments at Goldman Sachs, Citibank and Prudential Insurance prior to co-founding Ashley Capital.

“The Rubacha Real Estate Fellow is an important step for the Program in recognizing the crucial value that practice-based instruction from industry leaders, in combination with our full-time faculty, provides our students,” said Dr. David Funk, Director of the Program in Real Estate, adding that Samuels, with his wealth of large-scale development experience and acumen of a seasoned real estate professional, symbolizes the ideals behind the Rubacha Real Estate Fellow.

The Real Estate Development Process, a core course for first-year students, examines real estate development from both process and product perspectives, focusing on project feasibility and the principal issues of concern to major participants. “Tom’s experience and talents as executive and teacher will add great depth to the course. I know that he will teach an exceptional class,” said Brad Olson, former program director and instructor in the Real Estate Development course for the past eight years, adding that the Rubacha Faculty Fellow helps recognize Samuel’s past commitment to teaching and advising Program in Real Estate students.

For the past several years Samuels has been a guest lecturer in CRP 658: Residential Development, where he has also served as reviewer and critic for the semester-long course project that is a culmination of students’ first year in the program.

Samuels received his BA in Architecture from Cornell (’70), an MBA and a Master of City Planning from Harvard University. He is a member of the American Institute of Architects and is a certified planner with the American Institute of Certified Planners. The Cornell Program in Real Estate offers a comprehensive, two-year professional degree in the field. Students at Cornell benefit from an encompassing core curriculum combined with a rich, diverse selection of real estate electives allowing for niche specialization—all in close interaction with the largest on-campus real estate faculty in the country. Cornell is also home to the Cornell Real Estate Council, an extensive network of industry leaders, the Cornell Real Estate Review, conferences, research and industry news, and more.

For additional information, please visit:http://www.realestate.cornell.edu