Ute Braasch
Executive Managing Director, Global Operations, Corporate Solutions
This International Women’s Day and every day, we are proud to recognize our inspiring women leaders and allies at JLL.
Who is a female inspiration/role model to you and why?
At JLL — Sheila Penrose. She’s everything I want to be when I grow up! Smart, organized, connected, charitable, elegant, commanding, yet kind and caring. Hands down the most impressive woman I’ve ever met and a major reason I am at JLL. More broadly — every successful working woman I ever met. While each of them faces different challenges at home and at work, all of them collectively have helped to pave the way, given me ideas on paths to success, ways to balance work/life, manage men, choices that are available, etc. Most importantly, they have collectively given me the confidence that while you can’t have it all, there is a way to achieve your ambitions if you are clear about the choices and trade-offs you are willing to make.
Why does inclusion matter to you?
Inclusion is central to our purpose as a firm and our employee value proposition. How can we possibly shape the future of real estate for a better world, when we exclude significant parts of the population? How can we tell our employees and recruits that we want them to ‘achieve their ambitions’ and not truly mean every single one of them? We can’t. It simply is who we are and who we aspire to be.
How are you inspiring women to achieve their ambitions at JLL?
I’ve taken a few unusual turns in my career, yet still been very successful. I’ve lived and worked in three different countries during my nine years with JLL. Throughout, I’ve been very fortunate to have had opportunities to be involved in and lead teams that have worked on critical projects for the firm. Most recently, the global transformation of Corporate Solutions. All of these projects have not only given me a lot of visibility in the business but have also been very successful. I also actively promote diversity and inclusion in my teams and give women an opportunity to step up. I have always made it a point to staff my teams with diverse talent. My current team of direct reports is 65% diverse and is based in three continents. I also mentor several senior women in the firm. Finally, I am a working mother of three teenagers and my husband is also working full-time. I make it a point that people know that and deliberately take time to spend with my family, so that others understand it is ok to have a life outside of work and that ambitions should be more than just being successful at work.
