Leanne Tobias

Biografía: Leanne Tobias is founder and managing principal of Malachite LLC, an advisory firm that specializes in green real estate and energy efficiency. Green real estate services provided by Malachite LLC include assembling and managing green real estate development and management teams; providing green real estate certification and financing support to funds and property owners; portfolio management and investment advisory services; and strategy and policy development. Ms. Tobias brings over 20 years of institutional real estate investment, development and management experience to the sustainable real estate field, and was one of the first real estate investment experts to be designated as a LEED Accredited Professional by the U.S. Green Building Council. In addition to her work with private real estate and investment clients, Ms. Tobias is a sought-after international speaker, who has lectured on sustainable real estate investment and development for the United Nations; Harvard, Columbia and Wharton Business Schools; the Urban Land Institute; the U.S. Green Building Council and many others. Ms. Tobias is also an advisor to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Finance Advisory Board, to the Green Building Finance Consortium, and to Washington, DC’s Green Building Task Force and its Sustainable DC initiative. She has also held advisory roles with Building Design and Construction and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and is a member of ASTM’s Building Energy Performance Assessment Task Group. Ms. Tobias was previously Managing Director of the Multi-Employer Property Trust, a multi-billion dollar commercial real estate equity fund, where she managed its Investment Committee, negotiated or participated in more than $1 billion in real estate acquisitions and sales, and managed over 6 million square feet of property, including sustainable projects, across the U.S. She headed the real estate operations of the AFL-CIO Building Investment Trust, and directed programs for commercial real estate capital markets lenders, banks, pension funds and life insurance companies at the Mortgage Bankers Association. Ms. Tobias also has worked with numerous government agencies and developed energy retrofit guidelines for the U.S. government’s 1.9 billion square foot portfolio. Ms. Tobias is the author of Retrofitting Office Buildings to be Green and Energy-Efficient, the Urban Land Institute’s authoritative global guide to green office renovation, as well as the investment and finance sections of ULI’s Green Office Buildings: A Practical Guide to Development. Green real estate projects for which Ms. Tobias provided investment financing and management have been featured in a documentary on American television created by the producers of Al Gore’s Oscar-winning film, An Inconvenient Truth. Ms. Tobias holds an MBA from Wharton Business School, a Master’s of Public Affairs degree from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, and a B.A. from the University of Rochester.