Cherie Ong

I think I've had really good mentors in my life. My mom is a great role model - she's always been involved and was a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Malaysia before women were even given those roles. I think she was one of the first female partners, you know, in Malaysia, way back when PWC was even PWC. I think it was just Price or some other thing. So she's always been a great role model, and I've also had really good mentors in Australia as well.

I guess I have a bit of my own philosophy, but also it's kind of how I've lived, which is really to work for people that you respect and want to emulate, versus looking at the company or the role. That's kind of how I've operated most of my life. I've been offered lots of good jobs, but at the end of the day, I'd rather become an executive assistant to somebody who I really respect and want to emulate than to be paid tons of money in another role working for a boss that I don't respect.

I'm asked to speak quite a bit in real estate, just because there's not that many women of color who do development as opposed to agency. What I tell them is to not try to compete with men the way men compete. As women, we can play a different game. I don't have to play the same game that, especially in real estate, that men play. A lot of women think that in order to climb or do better, to be more successful, you gotta outdo the men at their own game. And I completely disagree. I grew up with a mostly male family - not just brothers, but cousins - and played all those strategy games like Risk and Diplomacy and online games. I very quickly realized that the guys are fighting against each other a lot of times, and that if I played my own way, they would just get confused and let me win sometimes because they didn't know what I was doing. I get really frustrated when I see women trying to be a man when they have so many great assets being a woman in the industry.

I think one of the biggest challenges is affordability, for sure. Affordable housing and not just housing, but just affordability - whether it's of lifestyle, or of office space, or program space, or housing - is one of the biggest crises across the country in general. Delivering that to the community and ensuring that our community and our next generations continue to be able to afford to stay in places that they want to live in is a huge challenge. But I think one of the greatest opportunities is in our community partners, in our historic institutions like churches and other faith-based landowners who don't have any debt on their properties, are located in key areas, and own a lot of land. They're able to provide that ability to come alongside the community and partner and be a part of that transition. At the end of the day, there's only going to be a few ways that this can happen, and historically, faith organizations have acted like that for centuries. This is a different way for them to evolve, but at the same time, a lot of faith organizations are also struggling to keep their lights on and to even maintain their properties.

I would say obviously integrity is pretty high, just especially in real estate. It's kind of a field where it's a really big hustle most of the time, and Atlanta's also just kind of a hustle. But I think in terms of values, having joy and fun in the journey is pretty important as well. Making money is not just the only bottom line at the end of the day. And what brings me fulfillment is to see impact happen in the community, to see it make a difference.