Real estate is “the physical infrastructure of the global economy,” says Tim Bodner, Partner and Global & US Real Estate Deals Leader at PwC, and he believes it’s entering a generational super cycle.

Brandt and Kellie talk with Tim about what PwC calls “the fog” of today’s market, the four forces reshaping global capital, and why operational excellence now drives returns.

They cover: - Where AI is actually creating real value - Why data is a leadership issue - How M&A is splitting the industry into large platforms and niche specialists - What he looks for in future leaders and new hires - Tim's three pieces of advice for anyone early in their career.

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Welcome to the first episode of our new podcast, Real Leaders Shaping Real Estate! After 400 episodes of Into the Corner Office, we are shifting our focus to having similar deep conversations with the best of the best in the real estate industry, both in the US and the UK. For our first episode, we are excited to welcome Jonas Bordo, a longtime friend and colleague. Brandt and Kellie talk with Jonas about his path from management consulting through Bentall Kennedy and Essex Property Trust to founding a rental marketplace that became the industry’s go-to source of real rent data. They also cover: - The gap between how renters and landlords see today’s market - Why housing supply is the only real fix - Dwellsy’s new partnership with Crexi (an online CRE marketplace and tech platform) - How AI is changing analysis and hiring - The one piece of career advice he got in a parking lot that still guides him. Plus, Newmark Vice Chairman Adam Barry asks Jonas how he knew when to pivot in this episode's expert guest question. About Jonas: Jonas Bordo is the co-founder and CEO of Dwellsy, the venture-backed proptech firm building the data backbone for an AI-native rental market. Under his leadership, Dwellsy has aggregated over 17 million rental units—representing roughly 75% of professionally managed U.S. inventory—transforming a fragmented market into a high-fidelity dataset for enterprise, government, and LLM ecosystems.

Jonas founded Dwellsy on a contrarian insight: traditional lead-gen models create data silos. By pioneering a free-to-list marketplace, he captured the "long tail" of inventory that competitors missed. Today, as AI agents redefine how consumers search and transact, Dwellsy’s dataset serves as the industry’s source of truth. A former senior executive at Essex Property Trust and BGO, Jonas brings decades of experience managing multi-billion-dollar portfolios to the intersection of real estate and technology. He is the author of Everything You Need to Know About Renting, a frequent speaker on AI operating models, and lives in Silicon Valley with his family.

Katie Rucker and Jenny Dinnen are twin sisters, Certified Futurists, and co-founders of Next Gen Collaborative. Drawing on their experience leading a family business, they help organizations prepare for change through strategic foresight, research, and collaborative planning. Through workshops, retreats, and advisory work, they help teams consider how emerging trends and shifting customer expectations could affect their businesses. Their work helps leaders challenge assumptions, explore possible futures, and make more confident decisions about what comes next.

As Co-Founder and CEO of Fable Beauty and Fable Beard Co., momtrepreneur Megan "The Princess" Gray has built a multi-million-dollar business while raising three children. Based in Franklin, Tenn., Fable is no ordinary wellness and grooming brand: each scent is developed with a character in mind, and with hundreds of characters across the brands since the company's inception, there's always a new story to tell.

What began as a hobby reviewing beard care products on YouTube grew into a passion project, and eventually into Fable Beard Co.—launched by Megan ("The Princess") and her husband and co-founder, Collin Gray ("The Wizard"), out of a desire to create products that actually smelled great. The couple later expanded into Fable Beauty, blending the masculine and feminine sides of their storytelling-driven approach. Megan has since built Fable Beard Co. into a nationally recognized brand featured in Forbes, Inc. 500, The Tamron Hall Show and the AskMen Annual Grooming Awards.

Peter J. Katsufrakis, MD, MBA, is president and CEO of NBME. Dr. Katsufrakis previously served as senior vice president of Assessment Programs at the National Board of Medical Examiners and is recognized nationally in the medical education and assessment community, both for his work at the NBME and in past roles advancing professionalism, HIV education, clinical training, and medical education administration.

Prior to joining the NBME, Dr. Katsufrakis’s positions included associate dean for student affairs and associate professor of clinical family medicine at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, where he received several teaching and outstanding service awards for his work. He has also served as a clinical associate professor of family and community medicine, at Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University.

Dr. Katsufrakis is licensed to practice medicine in Pennsylvania and is a diplomate of the American Board of Family Medicine. He is a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians and has served many organizations as a member, including the International AIDS Society, the American Academy of HIV Medicine, and the Association of American Medical Colleges Group on Student Affairs in many roles on committees and task forces.

Etinosa Agbonlahor is a behavioral economist and CEO of Decision Alpha, a behavioral firm that helps businesses understand what customers value and turn that into clearer pricing and growth.

Passionate about helping people reduce financial stress and live healthier financial lives, Etinosa brings over a decade of experience working across the U.S., Australia, Africa, and the U.K.

She has shaped financial wellbeing, engagement, and customer behavior strategies for global financial institutions, private businesses, and venture-backed startups.

Her work has been featured in MarketWatch, Morningstar, and other leading platforms, highlighting her focus on how behavior drives healthier financial outcomes.

Etinosa is the author of How to Talk to Your Parents About Money, a guide to navigating complex financial conversations.

Don was named one of the Top 30 Most “Transformational Leaders in North America” by John Maxwell and the 2018 Entrepreneur of the Year by the Atlanta Business Chronicle. In 2019, the Department of Defense recognized him with honors from the 75 th US Army Ranger Regiment, and he was named 2020 YMCA Volunteer of the Year. He is certified in Cybersecurity Management from Harvard University and has a Ph.D. in Economics and Organizational Leadership from Columbia International University. He earned his M.B.A. in Global Technology Management and International Business with an undergraduate B.B.A. in Economics and Finance. He resides in Atlanta, Georgia. Don’s work challenges and motivates organizations and leadership teams to think deeply about their beliefs so they can consistently achieve their communication, culture, sales, and management goals. His “unfair advantage” theories are revolutionary in today’s economy, as he leads and builds companies in a way that exposes the myth of modern leadership and communication techniques. Don’s recent work, “Here Come the Girls,” celebrates women in leadership. The study aims to help frustrated organizations transform by awakening their creative energy, thereby paving the way for uncharted production through cultural change. Conquering the highest levels of ethical performance with humor, intellectual capital, and time-tested systems, Don’s lectures engage teams with his highly personal style of steward leadership. His experience with cultural change and record-setting growth has drawn him to corporations that want to tap into his real-world expertise to move their organizations to higher levels of achievement. Don is well known in the financial industry, with sales averaging over $1 billion per year, and his original book, The Perfect Plan, is available in 39 countries worldwide. Don also serves as a Trustee and the past Chairman of the Summit Counseling Center in Atlanta, Georgia. He is a past board member of the Metro Atlanta YMCA and was responsible for designing their COVID response and post-COVID strategic initiatives. He is a past Board Member of the Sua Sponte Foundation. Additionally, he lectures at Wake Forest University, The Wharton School of Business, and Oxford University (U.K.) Dr. Barden is a frequent instructor at the US Army 1st and 3rd Ranger Battalion / 75 th Regiment’s Leadership and Professional Development Program.

Nick Turner is the CEO of Dreamdata. Nick is a seasoned B2B software leader with nearly two decades of experience building and scaling go-to-market teams, helping companies grow from early traction to tens of millions in revenue. Before stepping into the CEO role, Nick served as Chief Revenue Officer at Dreamdata, where he played a key role in shaping the company’s growth strategy and expanding its presence in the U.S. market. He later transitioned into the CEO seat, leading the company through a pivotal phase of scale and transformation. Under his leadership, Dreamdata recently raised a $55 million Series B round led by PeakSpan Capital—fueling its mission to become the go-to platform for B2B marketers to connect data, attribution, and revenue in the AI era. In this episode, we’ll explore what it takes to step into the CEO role, how to lead through rapid growth and funding milestones, and Nick’s perspective on building modern go-to-market teams in an increasingly data-driven world.