YOUNG PROFESSIONALS
Mastered the Disaster By Marianne Lawson, Property Manager with Hines and YP Vice Chair Recently, BOMA’s Young Professional Committee hosted the Be a Master of Disaster Seminar. We were fortunate enough to have Rush Durkin and Jeff Mabrey of Hines and Kirk O’Neal of Crescent Real Estate Equities sit on our esteemed panel and answer questions about fires, floods and hurricanes. These property management veterans started off the discussion with a brief description of what their major “disasters” were. Rush Durkin discussed his experience with flooding during Tropical Storm Allison and losing all critical equipment at Bank of America Center for almost an entire month. Kirk O’Neal discussed an electrical fire that took out an entire floor and
Rush Durkin, Kirk O’Neal and Jeff Mabrey share their disaster stories with attendees.
damaged the surrounding floors. Lastly, Jeff Mabrey described his experience with Hurricane Ike and the loss of almost 500 windows at Chase Tower. Thanks to Young Professional Sponsor United Protective Services. Check out their ad below. Heather McMillon with Transwestern, the moderator for the event and a YP herself, asked the panelists a variety of questions ranging in topics from tenant communication, insurance, disaster preparation methods, access control during the remediation and, of course, lessons learned. The attendees, especially the younger managers, came away with several ideas and things to keep in mind should they ever find themselves in a disaster situation. The packed room got all of their questions answered and shared how they felt better prepared for any disaster (knock on wood) that may hit Houston in the future. Now if we can just get those pesky hurricanes to miss us this year, the panel will have been a complete success! ■
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HOUSTON BUILDING OWNERS & MANAGERS ASSOCIATION MAY/JUNE 2011