A beauty of a mission

In 2004, Gina Diez Barroso founded CENTRO, a university in Mexico City that focuses on the arts. This campus for 2,500 students is the culmination of Barroso’s vision for combining design and education in the heart of Mexico City, where the very buildings engage the student’s artistic sensibilities.

The campus itself is a garden, with a full third of the available land dedicated to beautiful landscapes and rooftop planting. This university is a physical manifestation of Barroso’s belief that art, business, and technology are essential pillars of success, both on and off the campus.

CENTRO is one of the first campuses in the world to meet the stringent environmental requirements to achieve LEED Platinum status. The primary buildings all intersect in the same way the primary disciplines taught at the university intersect. The buildings match the university’s philosophy.

The entire campus is a veritable feast for the eyes, including numerous works designed by prominent artists. Unlike many university campuses that are designed separately from the curriculum planning, CENTRO’s architecture is integral to every experience on campus.

Starting Out

I began my career at the age of 19, working in the editorial business. Seven years later, I decided to pursue my passion for real estate. I was frustrated by how difficult it was for investors such as myself to launch a real estate project in Mexico due to all the moving parts; developing land was far too complicated and involved.

An investor needed to hire a real estate company that would find and acquire the land for them. They also needed an architect and a construction company, and eventually, a designer to do the interior design. I therefore decided to create a vertically integrated company that could do all these things in-house; I called it Diarq.

I hired people from diverse specialties and ended up having a real estate division with architects on site. I also hired designers for my own construction company. At that time, many foreign investors wanted to do business in Mexico, but they were put off by the logistical complications of building in the country. With so many companies involved, it was hard to get problems solved. When a problem arose, each company could blame the other, leaving frustrated investors wanting to tear their hair out.

By providing a single point of contact with Diarq, investors felt more secure building in Mexico. We began with residential projects, but over time we started to add commercial projects to our portfolio.

Throughout my career I have developed and invested in over 650 projects in Mexico and around the world. I wish that I could say every single one was a success, but some weren’t as good as others.

Of all my projects, none is closer to my heart than CENTRO University. It was the first time that I went into education, which became my reason – my purpose and my “why.” I finally found my core motivation.

Beside that, it was the first time I built to LEED standards. At first, our goal was to qualify for the Basic LEED, but when we reached that goal, we decided to go for bronze. Then we couldn’t resist and went up the ladder of silver, gold, and finally platinum.

We built every inch of the CENTRO campus, both inside and out. We became the only LEED Platinum campus in the world, which was pretty amazing. This project is still my favorite because it combines my passions for design, architecture, education, and the environment.

The Right Project

When looking at an opportunity, I begin by understanding the location, the surrounding market and basic supply and demand dynamics, cost basis, and potential cash flow. The surroundings are very important because I don’t usually look to build just a single freestanding building, no matter where in the world I am looking to do the deal. I like to buy the surrounding properties and endeavor to assemble sites. But many times you must deal with problematic owners, tenants, and neighbors. When pursuing this strategy, one of the biggest insights I gained is that costs and timing need to become critical parts of the decision tree. For example, I was involved in one land assemblage where I put together six different properties. The final property, on a per-square-meter basis, was three times more expensive than the average of the whole assemblage. However, I always see real estate as a long-term business (focusing on the equity multiple and not on the IRR, or internal rate of return). So I knew that with time it would become a very good investment.

If I were starting over, I would focus on the residential market or possibly spaces for e-commerce businesses. E-commerce is such a fast-growing sector, especially in urban areas. I’m a little hesitant to get into the office space. In general, the office and industrial sectors are much more similar to the commodity business. What do I mean by this? Historically, many investors have linked the real estate market with the bond market; however, the reality is that some sectors of the real estate market have much higher net operating income (NOI) appreciations than others, so it does not function exactly like a bond. In office and industrial, it used to be the case that you would sign long-term leases (15 to 20 years) and so that type of real estate is very similar to bonds. If you have a company like Estee Lauder leasing 70 percent of your office building or logistical center and paying a base rent with annual inflation, then it’s very similar to a bond. However, if you are in the residential for sale segment it could be that prices go up 15 or 20 percent per year because of pent up demand. That is what has happened in Mexico City between 2013 and 2017.

Education is my favorite segment, not because of its financial rewards but its emotional rewards. It’s my passion; it fulfills me in a special way.

The Real Estate Business

Real estate is a different animal than many other businesses, and you must be prepared for many challenges. The way you approach real estate is critical. Are you a professional or an investor? These are two drastically different mindsets.

A professional understands the unique nature of real estate and treats it appropriately, but an investor looking to expand a portfolio with a new asset class often doesn’t understand the cyclical nature of real estate and the potential downside.

If you want to invest in real estate as an asset class, you have to find properties that will generate income, and you need the financial buffer to endure crises without threatening your other investments. With real estate, you can be affected by economic crises in different parts of the world.

Unfortunately, many real estate investors do not understand the market they are entering, and they often overleverage. (Despite this risk, I think that all investors should have some real estate in their portfolio; it is a great asset class. You have to love bricks and buildings. You must understand that real estate does not operate like other investments.)

Dilettantes entering the real estate market without performing proper research and due diligence make risky decisions and overleverage. Bad timing or downturns, which eventually come, can crush you when you are overleveraged.

As a new investor, work with professionals and keep your debt levels to a minimum. Make sure you are in a strong enough financial position to endure the inevitable market shocks.

Technology

Technology is changing real estate at a surprising pace. I recently read about a center in Germany that is 100 percent automated. It doesn’t even have lighting; robots can work in the dark. The world is changing, and everybody needs to adapt. For instance, technology may provide amazing opportunities as cars, gas stations, and towns become more automated, but small gas stations will disappear and small towns may be at a disadvantage (compared to urban areas) as more consumers switch to electric cars.

I have spent time looking at mobility, walkability, how this will evolve and affect real estate. We’re now designing to accommodate driverless cars because technology is changing so much. We have not reduced parking in our development projects in Diarq, but at some point, we will. I think the driverless car will bring about a major shift in how the whole world is run and will absolutely have implications on real estate. It could be the case that the driverless car could have an impact on the famous adage of “location, location, location.”

Technology is also changing the way we teach at CENTRO. We are shifting to a sharing economy where people find ways to cooperate instead of competing. Those who stick their heads in the sand and ignore how quickly technology is changing the world around them will go the way of the dinosaurs.

To keep high-quality Millennials in your company, providing fun co-working spaces and an inspirational mission might be more important than offering high salaries. Millennials care more about quality of life and changing the world than they do about higher salaries. They are happy to live in smaller, private spaces as long as these include access to better-shared resources and community spaces. This new generation loves to collaborate and share spaces where they eat and work, while the space where they sleep is quite small. When I was young, music was about ownership and possession. You once owned the CD, but now music is shared via apps and digital services.

Millennials are shifting away from possession and toward using more shared resources. Why buy a car when you can rent a bike for the ride to work? To attract talent with this mindset, your company must impact the world or offer something to it. This is where the most investment is taking place. You must be changing the world or they lose interest.

Education Is My Passion

When I was 40 years old, I was pretty happy with my place in real estate, and my career was exactly where I wanted it to be. But as a woman in real estate in Mexico, I was happy but not satisfied. It is one thing to be happy; another thing is to be satisfied.

I wanted to help my country and give the next generation more opportunities through the power of education. I wanted a way to affect more of the world, and you can’t do that without getting into education. As I began to investigate the state of higher education in Mexico and around the world, I was frustrated by how far education lagged in the context of the world’s evolution. Technology was changing the way we live, travel, and work, but it wasn’t affecting the way we teach and learn at the same rate.

I was disappointed to discover that universities were still dividing the right and the left side of the brain. In my opinion, that line should be erased. I don’t understand this atavistic idea that numbers need to fight against creativity – this foolish notion that if you’re a creative person, you cannot be a businessperson.

I went to visit the top 30 universities in the world in person. The more I studied them, the less I wanted to give my money or my time to them. I decided to open my own university with a program completely different than the ones I’d seen in the world.

I asked the president of every single university that I visited the same question: “If you were able to change one thing about this university, what would you do?”

Without fail, they each gave me the exact same answer, “Get rid of bureaucracy. Bureaucracy is killing me.”

This is why the DNA of CENTRO will never be bureaucratic. We created a university with a very unconventional curriculum because it has a completely creative way of thinking. We developed a really creative economy, where 30 percent of the curriculum is business and entrepreneurship. Even if you want to study film or digital design, business entrepreneurship will be a part of your curriculum.

We have 310 professors from 26 nationalities, and every single one of them teaches part-time. To teach at CENTRO, you must also run a business. No more hiding from the economy in ivory towers for our professors. The students aspire to be like their teachers.

I can’t understand why a full-time professor would be teaching entrepreneurship. It’s baffling to me that someone can teach something they don’t know how to do in real life.

Real entrepreneurs know what it’s like to be working Thursday night and wondering if you will have any money Friday morning. It takes an iron stomach to be an entrepreneur.

We built our entire curriculum around this belief. We currently offer 800 undergraduate degrees, 18 master’s degrees, and 120 continuous education programs with over 3,000 students.

At any given time, 35 percent of the students are on scholarship. That is part of my plan for improving my country. We will never say no to deserving students just because they don’t come from wealthy families.

Although the opportunity to grow exists in Mexico, our strength comes from our faculty. It’s very difficult to find more professors of the quality that we have here. So we intend to grow internationally, starting with the United States. We studied the market in the whole country and have decided that when we open our next campus it will be in Miami, Florida. It’s still two years away, but we have already secured the site. Being in real estate, that was extremely important to me.

Unlike every other university in the United States, our classrooms do not look the same as classrooms from before the Industrial Revolution. It’s ridiculous how resistant to change these well- regarded institutions are.

I am on the board at multiple universities, and the days of the professor being the all-powerful source of knowledge are over. Students can pull out their phones and find answers faster than raising their hands and asking a question.

When I went to school, the professors “knew everything,” and their word was gospel. Any time a professor makes a mistake now, the students catch it by looking online. Modern professors need to realize that they have shifted roles to that of facilitators. They are there to guide the students as they learn and share their experiences and their thoughts.

At CENTRO, we don’t rely on final exams that students cram for and then forget everything about the second they hand in their answer sheet. We grade our students on the process.

Life is about the process, not a final exam. If your process of life is perfect, your end result will be perfect. Nothing in our classrooms is static. We care more about what gives our students the best results and the best experience. They might sit in a circle, on the floor, or even on pillows. Adaptability is the new way of teaching.

Dalia Empower

My life changed dramatically when I finally found my “why.” There are so many things you do in life without ever understanding the reason. I will never stop doing real estate because I love it, but the ability to inspire or change the life of a young person is a different reward, and it is my deepest passion.

Twenty years ago, I started a foundation for domestic violence and bullying. These behaviors are completely unacceptable to me. The foundation built high-security hospices where women and children lived with us for four months. This eventually evolved into Dalia Empower.

Nearly two decades ago, I joined an organization called The Committee of 200, which includes 200 women leaders in corporate life and in the world. We go to universities to speak to women about our lives and how we balance our corporate success.

The more I go and talk to women, the more I get frustrated to see how much is needed for them to be empowered and to know that they can achieve whatever they want.

Four years ago, the president of Mexico asked me if I would be willing to represent the women of Mexico in the G20 Initiative. At first, I wondered why he would even ask me. I’m not active in any political party, and I’m not a part of the government.

But then I realized that those were the exact reasons he reached out to me. Because I owe no allegiance to a political party, I can more freely speak about what the women in Mexico most need.

I started in Turkey, then I went to China, Berlin, and finally to Argentina. I had to draft a document for the G20 explaining exactly what the women of Mexico need. As I worked on this project, I became frustrated again. I was developing a recipe for success but without access to the right ingredients. The recipe will not work unless women find the power within themselves.

Women need to realize that they can find a balance between corporate and family life. They need to see that men can be partners in life and in business; that the only path to success is cooperation. It’s not about women fighting for their rights. This is a world where men and women must live in harmony, not competition.

I decided to open the Dalia Empower schools to teach women hardcore courses on the skills they need to reach leadership positions. Women make up 55 percent of college graduates in Mexico but only 5 percent of board members.

We started this project two years ago, and we recently opened the first courses for Dalia Empower. Each class graduates 25 new women with the skills to take those board seats.

Our idea is to open franchise models in locations from Chile to Canada. When we finish that, we will cross the ocean and go to Europe. We will teach hardcore courses as well as the soft skills like “How Do You Balance Your Life,” “Mindfulness,” “How Do You Educate Your Children,” and “Break the Glass Ceiling.” These lessons are critical for women.

We are also going to teach men how to empower the women in their organizations and how to mentor them. We want men to help. So often, women complain about being excluded from male-only spaces, yet we are the first ones to exclude men. At Dalia, we believe in men and women working together.

My Advice

Women need to follow their dreams and passions and should work together with their partners, if they decide to have a partner in life. It is time to shed stereotypes. We are the architects of our own destinies.

Nobody has ever offered to build a building for me. Nobody will do my job for me in real estate. Why should I expect that in life?

Women must decide what they want to do in life and then pursue that dream. They can achieve anything they set their minds on. Nothing is impossible.

Teamwork is critical to success, whether you are a man or a woman. I lost my father when I was 11, and he was my hero. I never got on very well with my mother because she always told me that I never took no for an answer.

I always thought she was pointing out a flaw, but now I realize that it was a compliment. My refusal to take no for an answer is how I have achieved so much in my life.

Don’t take no for an answer. Find the right people to help you achieve whatever you want to do.

Mentors are so important to success in the world of real estate, and yet it’s so difficult to find one. If you cannot find a mentor, go to a bookstore and read biographies about people you admire; let them mentor you through their lives and actions. If you can’t access a great mentor in person, you can learn a great deal from the way they lead and do business.

I did have a mentor, who didn’t actively mentor me very much, but he was somebody that I admire a lot. He helped me a great deal because I observed the way he did everything. He has a perfect balance. Everyone that I admire possesses a great deal of emotional intelligence. People who possess this skill have amazing lives.

I start every day with a big breakfast, sometimes eating much more than the men around me. I also meditate every single day. It’s such an amazing practice, and I’m on the board of the Global Wellness Institute, so I’d better meditate!

I work 10 to 12 hours daily, and I have 5 children. My life is defined by my ability to multitask. I always find time for my children. They are my most valuable asset.

Women should never feel guilty for not spending enough time with their families. We often discover that work and family each demand 100 percent of our time, but this much time is not available.

We all have to split our time, and guilt is a major issue with women. Do not feel guilty. It’s okay to fail. When I think about failing, I believe that the minute you fail is the minute that you stop trying. The rest is just making steps toward success.

My Philosophy

Above all else, you should be honest and trustworthy. Without these elements, our society will collapse. I encourage every one of you entrepreneurs to become a philanthropist, hopefully in the early part of your careers. You must find a way to give back to the society around you. Be willing to help people in need. The help doesn’t have to be financial, and those you help don’t need to be strangers.

You must always work hard. There is no success without effort. My hope is that more young people will go into the entrepreneurial arena. The world needs more entrepreneurs, leaders, and role models. Our world is currently suffering from a significant lack of worthy role models. I hope that people who find inspiration from their role models can also find a way to be an inspiration for others.