For many leaders, being the person everyone depends on can feel like success. After nearly 30 years in commercial real estate and business leadership, Mary Gentile shares why lasting leadership is about something different: developing capable people, sharing knowledge, and building organizations that remain strong even when you're not in the room.
Her Story
About Mary
Mary Gentile, CRX, CSM, is President and Partner of LQ Property Management, a Florida-based commercial property management firm serving commercial property owners and investors throughout the state. After beginning her career in commercial real estate nearly 30 years ago, Mary joined LQ in 2006 to launch and grow its property management operations and has helped build the company into a multi-market organization with offices in Fort Myers, Naples, Tampa, and Orlando.
Her career began in shopping center marketing, including roles with Simon Property Group and Cafaro Company, before evolving into operations, property management, and executive leadership. That experience has given Mary a unique perspective on commercial real estate—one that looks beyond the physical asset to the people, businesses, systems, and communities that allow a property to thrive.
Today, Mary’s leadership extends beyond managing commercial real estate. She focuses on organizational strategy, developing people, operational efficiency, business growth, and the thoughtful integration of artificial intelligence into everyday business. She is particularly passionate about helping organizations build systems that empower people to make better decisions and operate more effectively, rather than allowing technology - or leadership itself - to become a bottleneck.
Mary believes innovation works best when it remains human-centered. Her approach to AI reflects the same philosophy that has shaped her leadership career: technology should strengthen people, improve decision-making, create capacity, and allow leaders to spend more time on the work and relationships where they have the greatest impact.
Her commitment to leadership and community service spans numerous organizations. Mary currently serves as President of CREW Naples Fort Myers and as Treasurer of the SWFL HI AI Innovation Hub, a regional initiative focused on making practical and responsible AI education accessible to small and medium-sized businesses. She is an At-Large Member of the Horizon Council, where she has served on committees including Business Issues and STEM, and previously served as President of the Real Estate Investment Society (REIS). She has also participated in SWFL Leadership and remains actively engaged with ICSC, BOMA, IREM, CREW Network Corporate Council, and other commercial real estate and business organizations.
Mary holds the Certified Retail Property Executive (CRX) and Certified Shopping Center Manager (CSM) designations, along with continued education and credentials in artificial intelligence and emerging technologies. In 2023, she was recognized as a GlobeSt. Women of Influence honoree, and in 2025 and 2026 a nominee for Distinguished Entrepreneur of the Year.
Across her work in commercial real estate, business, technology, and community leadership, one theme has remained consistent: building organizations, people, and communities that are stronger because of the systems and opportunities created around them. For Mary, leadership is not about being the person everyone depends on—it is about creating the environment where others have the confidence and tools to succeed.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Mary
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to being open to opportunities, embracing change, and never being afraid to grow beyond the role I originally imagined for myself. I started my career at 17 with Simon Property Group in what was intended to be a six-month marketing position. By saying yes when new opportunities arose, that experience grew into marketing, visual merchandising, operations, property management, and eventually executive leadership across multiple markets.
Looking back, every experience prepared me for the next chapter, even when I couldn’t see it at the time. I’ve learned that success is rarely one defining moment. It is built through curiosity, resilience, relationships, and consistency: showing up, doing what you say you will do, protecting the trust people place in you, and continuing to learn even after you’ve earned a seat at the table.
I’ve also never wanted experience to become an excuse to stop evolving. Whether embracing new technology like AI, rethinking how we operate, or developing the next generation of leaders, I remain curious and willing to ask whether there is a better way.
Ultimately, I measure success not only by what I’ve built, but by what I’ve helped others build - the people who have grown into confident leaders, the clients whose investments we’ve helped protect, and the organizations and communities that are stronger because we contributed to them.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I’ve received is not to wait until you feel completely ready. Some of the opportunities that have shaped my career came before I had all the experience, confidence, or answers I thought I needed. I learned to say yes, figure out what I didn’t know, and trust that I could learn along the way.
I’d add my own advice to that today: stay curious and don’t become so comfortable with what you know that you stop asking questions. Your experience should give you confidence, but never complacency. Some of my greatest growth has come from being willing to walk into rooms where I wasn’t the expert, listen to people who knew more than I did, and remain open to changing my perspective.
You don’t have to know exactly where every opportunity will lead. Sometimes you just have to be willing to walk through the door.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
My advice to young women entering commercial real estate is to expose yourself to as many sides of the industry as possible before deciding where you belong. One of the things I try to do with interns is give them opportunities to shadow brokers, property managers, marketing and accounting teams, and facilities professionals. Commercial real estate is an incredibly broad industry, and there are so many career paths beyond the ones people typically hear about.
I would also tell them not to be intimidated by what they don’t know yet. There isn’t one traditional path into commercial property management—I certainly didn’t follow one. Much of what makes someone successful is learned through experience, asking questions, finding good mentors, and being willing to step into situations that stretch you.
And learn how to remain calm when everyone around you is not. In property management especially, people rarely call to tell you everything is going perfectly. They call when there is a problem, an emergency, or something affecting their business or investment. Your ability to listen, separate emotion from the issue, find a solution, and become a trusted resource is invaluable.
Most importantly, don’t wait for someone else to decide you’re ready. Raise your hand, ask to be included, walk into the room, and then keep learning once you get there.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
One of the biggest challenges, and opportunities, in commercial property management is developing the next generation of talent. Unlike many professions, there isn’t a clearly defined educational path into our industry, particularly on the property management side. Yet there are so many entry points that people may not realize exist.
A handyman with strong mechanical skills and a willingness to learn can grow into a Facilities Technician. Someone with an accounting degree already understands the fundamentals of bookkeeping and can learn the nuances of commercial property accounting. Residential property managers can transition into commercial roles, and people with backgrounds in customer service, construction, operations, or hospitality often bring valuable skills that translate remarkably well.
Our opportunity is to get better at identifying those transferable skills and then provide the commercial real estate training, mentorship, and hands-on experience that connects the dots.
Technology and AI add another exciting layer. As we automate more of the repetitive administrative work, we can spend more time developing the skills that technology cannot replace—judgment, problem-solving, communication, relationships, and the ability to remain a calm resource when an owner or tenant has a problem.
The future will be about developing better-equipped people and opening the door to individuals who may never have realized there was a place for them in commercial real estate.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The values that matter most to me are integrity, service, curiosity, accountability, and creating opportunities for others. I believe the way you show up should be consistent whether you are leading a company, serving on a board, mentoring someone early in their career, or simply being there for the people in your life.
Integrity and accountability are especially important to me. Do what you say you are going to do, own it when you get something wrong, and protect the trust people place in you. In both business and life, relationships are built over time but can be changed in a moment by how you handle the difficult situations.
I also value curiosity and the willingness to evolve. That has shaped everything from my career in commercial real estate to my involvement with the SWFL HI AI Innovation Hub. I believe we have a responsibility to keep learning and then share what we learn so others have an opportunity to grow with us.
Ultimately, service ties much of it together. Whether through CREW, the Horizon Council, industry organizations, community initiatives, or simply helping someone find their next opportunity, I want the time and experience I've been fortunate enough to accumulate to be useful to someone else. To me, success isn't only about what you accomplish-it's about whether the people, businesses, and communities around you are stronger because you were part of them.
Her Content Hub
Articles by Mary
The Best Leaders Make Themselves Less Necessary
Why the strongest leaders stop measuring their value by how much depends on them and start building people, systems, and confidence that can thrive without them.
The Best Leaders Make Themselves Less Necessary
For years, I thought being a good leader meant being the person everyone could count on.
The person with the answer. The person who could fix the problem. The person who remembered the history behind a decision no one else remembered making. The person who stepped in when something needed to get done.
And, if I'm being fair, I became pretty good at it.
But nearly 30 years into my career, I've come to believe something very different:
The real measure of leadership may be how well people can succeed when you're not in the room.
That realization didn't happen overnight.
I started my career at 17 with Simon Property Group in what was supposed to be a six-month marketing position. I certainly wasn't thinking about leadership philosophy or organizational development. I was thinking about doing a good job and taking advantage of whatever opportunity came next.
One opportunity became another. Marketing expanded into visual merchandising, which led to greater responsibility, different markets, operations, property management, and eventually executive leadership and business ownership.
Along the way, I learned how valuable it is to be dependable.
What took me longer to understand was that there can be a downside to becoming too dependable.
When Being Needed Becomes the Bottleneck
Many successful leaders, particularly women I've encountered throughout my career, become very good at carrying things.
We remember the details. We anticipate the problems. We fill the gaps. We answer the questions before anyone else has time to figure them out.
It feels responsible.
It can also feel rewarding to know people need you.
But eventually, you have to ask a difficult question:
Am I helping people succeed, or have I unintentionally taught them that success requires me?
There is an important difference.
If every decision comes through the leader, you've created dependence rather than leadership.
If employees are afraid to make a decision without your approval, they never develop judgment.
If you're the only person who understands why something is done a certain way, you don't have a process. You have institutional knowledge living inside one person's head.
And if you can't step away without everything slowing down, that isn't necessarily evidence of your importance. It may be evidence that something needs to change.
I've had to learn this myself.
Leadership Requires Letting People Struggle a Little
One of the hardest parts of developing people is allowing them enough room to figure things out.
When you've been doing something for decades, you can often see the answer before someone else does. It is incredibly tempting to jump in and give it to them.
It's faster.
But faster isn't always better.
Sometimes the better question is, What do you think we should do?
That simple question changes the dynamic. Instead of teaching someone to come to you for answers, you're teaching them how to develop one.
Will they always make the same decision you would?
No.
Sometimes their solution will be better.
Sometimes they'll make a mistake.
That's part of developing judgment.
Our responsibility as leaders isn't to eliminate every opportunity for someone to fail. It's to create an environment where people can make thoughtful decisions, learn from mistakes, ask for help when they need it, and gradually build confidence in their own abilities.
The goal isn't to create more people who think exactly like us.
It's to create more people who know how to think.
Technology Is Giving Us an Interesting Test
Artificial intelligence has made this leadership conversation even more relevant.
I'm fascinated by AI and its potential for businesses, particularly small- and medium-sized organizations that haven't historically had access to the resources of much larger companies.
But I don't believe the most interesting question is, What can AI replace?
I think the better question is, What can AI give back to people?
Can it give a property manager time back from repetitive administrative work so she can spend more time with an owner or tenant?
Can it help an employee find information without waiting for the one person who has been with the company for 20 years?
Can it capture processes and organizational knowledge so expertise becomes accessible rather than residing with one individual?
Can it help a small business operate with capabilities that once required a much larger staff?
Used well, technology can make people less dependent on gatekeepers.
Including us.
That's where leadership and technology intersect for me.
AI shouldn't make people less valuable. It should help people become more capable.
Your Experience Should Become Someone Else's Shortcut
After nearly three decades in commercial real estate, I've accumulated a lot of knowledge.
But knowledge becomes far more valuable when it stops belonging exclusively to you.
That's one reason mentorship, professional organizations, and community involvement have become increasingly important to me.
When we bring interns into our business, I want them exposed to more than one job. I want them to spend time with property managers, accountants, brokers, marketing professionals, and facilities teams.
Someone may walk in thinking commercial real estate means selling buildings and discover an entirely different career they didn't know existed.
I've watched people bring skills from completely different backgrounds and find a place in our industry. A handyman with strong mechanical instincts can develop into a Facilities Technician. Someone with an accounting background can learn the nuances of commercial property accounting. A residential property manager willing to learn can transition into commercial real estate.
Sometimes leadership is simply helping someone see a possibility they couldn't see for themselves.
Then giving them enough room to grow into it.
From Holding Everything Together to Building Something That Holds
There was a time in my career when being the person who held everything together felt like the goal.
Today, I think differently.
I want to build systems that hold. I want to develop people who trust their own judgment. I want knowledge documented and shared. I want technology to remove unnecessary friction. I want the people around me to understand not only what we do, but why we do it.
And I want to be able to step out of the room without becoming the missing piece.
That doesn't make a leader less valuable.
I think it may be one of the clearest signs that we've done our job well.
Leadership isn't measured by how many decisions require your approval, how many people need your answer, or how difficult you would be to replace.
Eventually, leadership becomes something much bigger than being needed.
It becomes what you've taught. What you've built. Who you've encouraged. What continues working. And what other people now believe they are capable of doing because someone once gave them the opportunity to try.
Your legacy isn't how much depended on you. It's how much became possible because you were there.
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