{"id":32067,"date":"2019-03-25T15:41:21","date_gmt":"2019-03-25T19:41:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/?p=32067"},"modified":"2019-10-24T09:54:32","modified_gmt":"2019-10-24T13:54:32","slug":"from-risks-come-rewards-how-fiu-business-alumnus-glenn-rufrano-navigates-turbulence-and-steers-companies-to-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/2019\/03\/from-risks-come-rewards-how-fiu-business-alumnus-glenn-rufrano-navigates-turbulence-and-steers-companies-to-success\/","title":{"rendered":"From risks, come rewards: How FIU Business alumnus Glenn Rufrano navigates turbulence and steers companies to success."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"From
Glenn Rufrano<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Glenn Rufrano\u2019s foray into the business world began by taking a risk. As a new college grad with a computer analytics degree, Rufrano couldn\u2019t find a job in his chosen field, so he accepted one as a property appraiser on Long Island.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t even know what a real estate appraiser was,\u201d he said. \u201cI had nothing better to do.\u201d A year later, he took another risk, moving to Miami to open an additional office.<\/p>\n

Time and again, during a career in real estate spanning more than 40 years, Rufrano has repeatedly turned risks into rewards by taking charge of troubled companies and turning them around. Rufrano (MS \u201974) returned to his alma mater on March 6, 2019 to share lessons learned with students as part of the FIU Business CEO Speaker Series<\/a>. Supported by Wertheim Lecture Series Endowment funds, the talks put business leaders in front of students for education, inspiration and real-world advice.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to take a risk, embrace it,\u201d he told the crowd at the Student Academic Success Center Auditorium. \u201cYou might win or lose, but if you feel good about yourself, you should take that risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rufrano counseled students to ask themselves what their talent is and where their passion lies before deciding what to do or where to be. For his part, he returned to New York in the late 1970s amid the real-estate downturn and, in 1983, co-founded O\u2019Connor Group (now called O\u2019Connor Capital Partners). By 1998, the firm had 750 employees and $7 billion in assets under management.<\/p>\n

\"Joanne
Joanne Li and Glenn Rufrano<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

His next risk adventure: taking on his first stint as CEO of a public company, New Plan Excel Realty Trust, in 2000. After Rufrano transformed it into one of the nation\u2019s largest public real estate companies, it was acquired by Australian REIT Centro Properties. A few months later, Centro Properties disclosed that it was in default on $5 billion in debt.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re a public company and you put out an announcement like that, it\u2019s bad,\u201d he said. The firm swayed Rufrano to move to Melbourne and take the helm in 2008. \u201cI knew about real estate in the States, but I didn\u2019t know anything about real estate in Australia,\u201d Rufrano said. Still, despite the firm\u2019s $7 billion of debt with 23 lenders, Rufrano avoided bankruptcy by establishing a three-year plan with the lenders and restructuring the debt.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s the most important thing about going into a turnaround?\u201d he asked. \u201cKnowing that you didn\u2019t cause the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

His biggest risk to date, Rufrano told the students, came in 2010, when he returned to the U.S. to head Cushman & Wakefield, a company that had been suffering substantial losses. Once again, the turnaround specialist steered the company in a favorable direction, laying the groundwork for its sale to DTZ in 2015.<\/p>\n

Rufrano\u2019s expertise was called upon again in 2015, after American Realty Capital Properties was rocked by revelations of accounting irregularities. He remains with the company today and, renamed VEREIT, it is on the right track.<\/p>\n