Natalie Bazarevitsch walked into CBRE as a summer intern in Toronto and never left – building a career of more than 35 years that took her to California. Bazarevitsch is now a senior vice president specializing in leasing office properties in Glendale and Burbank submarkets.
1. Bazarevitsch grew up Russian – in Canada. Born and raised in Toronto, her first language is Russian; she attended Russian school, studied Russian character dancing, and was raised in the Eastern Orthodox faith. Traditions, she said, remain very much a part of her life after more than 30 years in the U.S.
2. She’d rather have 100 friends than 100 rubles. Taking inspiration from a Russian proverb, money matters less, she said, than the friendships that support you personally, professionally, intellectually, emotionally and spiritually.
3. She calls herself the “co-founder” of her family. She and her husband of 34 years, who works in financial services, have two sons who followed her into commercial real estate. “They’re building their practices with great organizations, and I’m just incredibly proud of them,” she said.
4. She got her start as an intern and stayed for decades. CBRE hired Bazarevitsch into sales in 1989 after two summer internships in Toronto. When a hiring freeze hit in the early 1990s, she moved to California and went straight to the company’s headquarters, a chance that allowed her to see the firm from a different vantage point, she said. Bazarevitsch marked 35 years with CBRE in the U.S. in August, a tally that doesn’t count her Canadian years, she joked.
5. She helped turn 35 women into a network of 8,000. In 2000, Bazarevitsch was among roughly 35 women who gathered at CBRE’s world conference, struck by how few women brokers there were in North America and around the globe. The idea came from a Chicago colleague, and Bazarevitsch jumped in almost immediately, becoming a founding board member of the CBRE Women’s Network. Built on growth, connection, mentorship and advocacy, the network also gave rise to CBRE Cares, the company’s philanthropic arm.