Ann Colussi Dee, executive vice president, general counsel, and corporate secretary at Duke Realty Corporation, participated in a video interview during REITwise 2022: Nareit’s Law, Accounting & Finance Conference held in Orlando, Florida on March 23-25.
Dee said that Duke Realty moved into a new corporate headquarters in February 2020 and had decided pre-pandemic that all employees would receive laptops. “In hindsight, that was a pretty smart move, so that everybody could work remotely without any trouble at all,” she said.
Turning to how the Great Resignation has impacted the REIT industry, Dee noted that with a “seasoned workforce,” a segment of employees have turned to retirement over the past two years. Others found new roles with greater pay and flexibility, but Dee said that culture can carry greater weight than benefits.
Dee added that in her role as general counsel, there’s increasingly more that she needs to weigh in on in regard to SEC reporting and disclosure matters, particularly on cyber and climate risk.