The ULI Randall Lewis Center for Sustainability in Real Estate is pleased to announce its two newest board members: Esther An and Collete English Dixon.
The ULI Randall Lewis Center for Sustainability in Real Estate leads the real estate industry in creating places and buildings where people and the environment thrive. In collaboration with ULI members and partners, the Center drives industry transformation, cultivates leaders and champions, and helps foster solutions for sustainable, resilient, healthy, and equitable cities and communities. The Center pursues these goals via cutting-edge research, global gatherings, leadership networks, community technical assistance, and other strategies.
The ULI Lewis Center Advisory Board provides strategic leadership and insights that inform the Center’s priorities and is chaired by Brian Swett.
For two decades, Esther An has brandished innovative techniques and creative business practices that are helping the international construction and real estate industry to curb its impact on the environment. As Chief Sustainability Officer of City Developments Limited (CDL), Esther wields her knowledge, skills, and enthusiasm to act as an ardent advocate of the environmental, social, and governance principles (ESG) underlying sustainable development. In addition, she is helping her company use its base in Singapore, one of the world’s densest cities, to set global benchmarks for green construction and sustainability, and to ensure that the company’s value-creation model integrates the six so-called capitals—financial, manufactured, intellectual, human, social and relationship, and natural capital—used by the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC). CDL is a ULI Greenprint Member, and Esther has been very engaged in the ULI Greenprint APAC community. She is also active on the ULI APAC Net Zero Product Council and the ULI Singapore Sustainability Council.
“To win the global race to zero,” Esther says, “greening the built environment, which represents nearly 40 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, is critical. It’s my honor to support the good work of the Lewis Center to rally ULI members to embrace sustainability, not only to mitigate their climate-related risks but to capture opportunities for sustained growth.”
Collete English Dixon is the Executive Director of Roosevelt University School of Real Estate and has more than 30 years of experience in investment management with a focus on commercial real estate investing. Prior to her current role at Roosevelt University, she was Executive Director-Transactions for PGIM Real. Collete’s experience also includes commercial property development and asset management. In her current role, Collete manages all aspects of the university’s undergraduate real estate degrees—major and minor—as well as the MSRE/MBA-RE degree and graduate certificate programs. She is the first African American woman leader of a higher-education real estate program in the U.S. and a member of the administrative team for the Heller College of Business. Collete serves in multiple leadership roles with ULI and other organizations, including serving as a ULI Global Governing Trustee and a former member of the Americas Executive Committee. She is active with ULI Chicago.
“I am so excited to be a part of the Lewis Center team bringing knowledge and insight to ULI’s members on the matters of sustainability, equity, and decarbonization,” Collete says. “The work of the Lewis Center continues to grow in urgency and impact. It is an honor to support the effort.”
In FY24, the Lewis Center hosted 136 events and convenings, which engaged nearly 16,000 people and produced three dozen publications read by 31,000 people on topics spanning the Center’s focus areas. This fall, Esther and Collete will join other members of the ULI Lewis Center Advisory Board in leading an update to its strategic plan, which will enable the Center to listen to ULI members, reflect on progress, and set the course for even greater impact in the coming years. To be added to the Lewis Center mailing list for upcoming events and publications, please email [email protected].
