Interview with Kurt Ochalla: Veteran Leader Shares Insights on DEI and Career Success
In honor of the Veterans Day holiday, our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee had the privilege of interviewing Kurt Ochalla, a US Army Reserve Veteran and Head of Global Real Estate at Biogen. Kurt shared how his time in the military has influenced his career and shaped his leadership style. He also delved into the critical role of DEI in attracting talent to the commercial real estate industry.
Q: How has being a veteran prepared you for CRE leadership?
In the military, when you develop an Operation Plan, you must always have multiple contingency plans to stay flexible and prepare for the unexpected. When the bullets start flying, nothing ever goes according to plan. I have found that this principle often applies to CRE planning, where even with the best strategic planning, the execution of the transaction and project never quite goes as expected, so you need to be flexible and have contingency plans to prepare for the unexpected.
At the age of 20, I was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Army Reserve. I was immediately put in charge of 45 individuals ranging in age from 18 right out of basic training to more senior enlisted over 40 years old with 20+ years of experience, some of who served during Vietnam. It was a humbling experience, and I learned quickly to identify the strengths of those under my command and sought their advice to educate myself and make me a better leader. Similarly, the same can be applied to a CRE leader. You likely don’t have depth in all functions across the real estate lifecycle, so leveraging your team’s experience, and that of external partners for advice to support decision-making is key to being successful.
Finally, in the Army, you are expected to lead from the front. You can’t expect to ask your team to perform a task or mission without being willing to do it yourself first. That is how you earn their respect, take responsibility, and credit the team when things go well. Rather than just relying on the rank on your collar, you also take responsibility when things don’t go as planned and you credit the team when things go well. As a CRE leader, the same is true. If something goes wrong, the buck stops with me, and I will take ownership of the mistake and put processes in place to prevent it from happening again. Similarly, I have been lucky to have some very strong teams supporting me over the years, and I take the opportunity to pass the credit on to them as much as possible in the eyes of senior leadership.
Q: How do you look at DEI through the lens of attraction/retention and CRE operations at Biogen?
First, the military is by far the most diverse organization for which I have ever worked. The diversity across race, gender, religion, socioeconomic status, and cultural background is far greater than I have ever experienced in my real estate career. Starting in basic training, where the goal is to break you down so everybody is at the same level to achieve a common mission, you stop categorizing your peers or putting them in general buckets. With that frame of reference trying to achieve a level playing field, everybody has an equal opportunity to advance despite their background. While it’s not always done perfectly in the military, you do get the sense early that your military career and potential for advancement are only limited by the effort you are willing to put in.
Applying that to the real estate industry, it is great to see the new DEI efforts being driven by CoreNet at the national level and the programs being implemented at the local level. At Biogen, I am also proud to work for a company that is committed to building a culture of inclusion and belonging that reflects the communities where we operate and the patients that we serve. This is shown in the large number of employee resource groups at the company. It is a fact that organizations perform better and are more innovative when there is a diverse set of perspectives providing input., so seeing DEI in practice at all levels in our professional organizations, along with the companies we work for, brings hope for the future in attracting and retaining a diverse talent pool.
About Kurt:
Kurt Ochalla is the Head of Global Real Estate for Biogen, where he has end-to-end responsibility for all real estate functions across a global portfolio of over 4.5 MSF in 70 offices across 40 countries. Kurt possesses over 25 years of diverse real estate industry experience with a unique blend of expertise in real estate portfolio strategy, finance, transaction management, lease administration, valuation, and real estate technology from a corporate end-user perspective.
Kurt earned a BS in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Wisconsin and his MBA in Real Estate Finance from the University of Connecticut. He previously served on the Board of Directors for CoreNet Global New England and the Charles River Chamber, as well as on the Board of Assessors for the Town of Needham. Kurt is a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army Reserve, where he served for 24 years as a career Corps of Engineers officer.