Real Estate, Finance, and Economics

I have taught basic finance and accounting courses on the college level at various points in my career. And I have served as a corporate director of financial communications and investor relations, as well as vice president of a regional chapter of NIRI (the National Investor Relations Institute). So I'm extremely confortable with finance, accounting, and economics topics. For a number of years, I was a contributing editor at the Journal of Property Management in Chicago, and I start with a particularly fascinating story from that excellent - and sophisticated - publication.

  

I was a contributing editor and frequent contributor at the Journal of Property Management, the magazine of the Institute of Real Estate Management in Chicago, for a number of years. I learned a lot from my association with this journal, as the stories assigned tended to be both timely and intellectually challenging, designed for a very specialized audience. This one, "Lessons From the Inferno: Emergency Preparedness at the World Trade Center," took me into the bowels of that doomed structure after the first terrorist attack to strike it, in 1993. I believe this article is truly noteworthy, not only as a real estate and facilities management story, but also as an historical document. 

I was also a frequent contributor to Chemical Business, at Schnell Publishing in New York. Because of my background, I was often assigned stories on finance and investor relations, including the one above, "Chemical Dividends: To Pay or Not to Pay." 

I very much enjoyed a multiyear association with France Magazine, a beautifully-designed publication for "friends of France," which came out of the French Embassy in Washington. I've included two stories from France in this Portfolio. This first one is a real estate story, "Miami Twice," about Marseille-based builder Groupe Constructa, which won numerous awards for its innovative shopping plaza, CocoWalk, in Coconut Grove, and was about to follow up this success with 1500 Ocean Drive, in South Beach, a condominium and retail complex designed by superstar architect Michael Graves.

One of the economics articles I'm most proud of is the lengthy and wonderfully-illustrated piece above, the lead story in its issue of National Wildlife, at the National Wildlife Federation, in Washington. "How Much Is a Gray Wolf Worth?" was one of the first stories in a consumer magazine to explore the burgeoning new specialty of resource economics, which seeks to measure the financial impacts of various actions meant to improve the environment. I think this is a well-researched and politically balanced article, which I hope readers will learn something from, as well as enjoy.  

The next section of the Portfolio:

Human Resources and Miscellaneous Business 

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Human Resources and Miscellaneous Business

In my four decades as a high-volume business journalist, I served as a contributing editor or regular contributor at literally dozens of different "Trades" - business and professional magazines. In this section of the Portfolio, I've highlighted articles from what were then the two largest magazines for human resources managers, Personnel Journal and HR Magazine, and a prominent healthcare "Trade," The Physician and Sportsmedicine. I've also included another piece from France Magazine, a publication of the French Embassy in Washington.

This lengthy and painstakingly researched cover story from Personnel Journal, then the highest-circulation Trade magazine for human resources managers, covers a topic even more relevant today: maintaining a global perspective and global skills in a company which operates in a wide range of regions and countries. For "Global HR," I conducted extensive interviews, some on-site, with top executives from Ferro, Fluor Daniel, Dow Chemical, General Electric Medical Systems, and other prominent companies.

"Back on Track," written for regular client France Magazine, at the French Embassy in Washington, was an early consumer-oriented story on a topic that has become hotter and hotter over the years: high-speed rail and its ability to contribute to the economic development of U.S. states and regions. My principal interviews for this story were conducted with Paris's GEC-Alsthom, but I also talked with other prominent train manufacturers, government regulators, political activists, and rail historians.
  

"Coed Sports - Is Equality the Answer?," a comprehensive article for a healthcare Trade client, The Physician and Sportsmedicine, treats the general topic of coed athletics and athletic teams from the perspective of physicians seeking to keep high-school and college sports as safe as possible for the schools and individuals involved. In other words, this was in no way a political article - although then, as now, the subject was politically controversial.

 

  

"Corporate Pioneers Explore Spirituality," from leading human resources Trade publication HR Magazine, may cause a pang of nostalgia in some readers. Yes, there was once a time when employees were not simply pawns in vast financial restructuring games, but were actually seen as individuals employers might want to retain on their payrolls for decades. For awhile, there were efforts to harness workers' "spiritual side" as a way of creating a better and more loyal workforce. I was a frequent contributor to human resources "Trades," and this was an enjoyable story to work on, drawing on material from Asian religions and Native American culture, among other sources.

The next section of the Portfolio:

Woman's World Columns and General Features

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