Andrew C. Florance founded CoStar Group, Inc. in 1987, fundamentally changing the way commercial real estate professionals access, use and share information. Through CoStar, Mr. Florance pioneered the concept of commercial real estate firms outsourcing research functions to a third-party information provider, combining the operational efficiencies of a computer-based information system with the more complete, standardized and higher quality property information produced by the industry’s first independent research organization. This key innovation resulted in substantial productivity gains for subscribers to CoStar’s information service, and remains the cornerstone of the company’s success.
As Founder and Chief Executive, Mr. Florance has directed CoStar’s successful expansion from start-up, to its IPO in July 1998, and to its market-leading position today as a publicly traded enterprise (Nasdaq: CSGP) with approximately 1,500 employees worldwide, a client base that includes the commercial real estate industry’s leading brokerage firms and property owners, and an international service platform covering the United States, the United Kingdom and Paris, France.
Mr. Florance has also been a leader in raising awareness of energy efficiency and sustainability within the commercial property sector. In 2008, he conceived and co-authored the first comprehensive analysis of leasing and sales activity in energy-efficient office buildings in the United States. The study, which was published in the Journal of Real Estate Portfolio Management, was selected by the American Real Estate Society as the “Best Paper” published in the prestigious academic real estate journal in 2008. The groundbreaking study was also cited as a critical factor in CoStar Group’s selection as the only commercial real estate-related company to win an ENERGY STAR Award for Excellence from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2009.
In addition, Mr. Florance has received numerous other awards recognizing his accomplishments as an entrepreneur, innovator and corporate leader, including:
- Conceived and co-authored two other award-winning studies, including the first analysis to use direct measurement of commercial property to document the full size and scope of the commercial real estate market as an $11 trillion asset class in the United States. In another study, Florance and his co-authors studied the repeat-sales performance of commercial real estate by analyzing more than 20 years of historical property sales in CoStar’s database. The study resulted in the formation of the CoStar Commercial Repeat-Sale Indices (CCRSI), believed to be the most comprehensive and thorough commercial real estate repeat-sale price index available in the market today. Both studies were published in the Journal of Real Estate Portfolio Management, and selected by the American Real Estate Society for “Best Paper” awards.
- Recognized for his role in directing the 2010 acquisition of CoStar Group’s headquarters building at 1331 L Street, NW in Washington, DC, by the Washington Business Journal, which selected the transaction as the “Best Real Estate Deal-Urban Office Sale of 2010.”
- Named Real Estate Industry Executive of the Year for 2009 by the editors of the Cornell Real Estate Review;
- Recognized for leading CoStar to its ranking among the 50 fastest growing Maryland technology companies by Deloitte & Touche for 10 consecutive years, and its selection by Business 2.0 magazine for its list of the 100 fastest-growing public technology companies;
- Named Transwestern's 2007 Public Company Trendsetter of the Year;
- Honored by Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW) with its 15th anniversary award for industry innovation.
- Received Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2000;
- Won a prize from NAIOP, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association, for his contribution to a white paper examining the potential impacts of 9-11 on investment-grade office buildings;
- Awarded two patents by the United States Patent and Trademark Office for developing mobile information gathering systems for collecting comprehensive commercial real estate information in the field.
A graduate of Princeton University, Mr. Florance serves on the Board of Directors for the American Real Estate Society, an association of real estate thought leaders whose members include leading global academic and professional researchers dedicated to exploring the critical issues of applied real estate decision-making. He also is a member of the Sierra Club and serves on the Governing Board for Beauvoir, the National Cathedral Elementary School, as well as on the Board of Trustees for both the Shakespeare Theatre Company and the National Building Museum in Washington, DC.
Brian Radecki was appointed CoStar Group's Chief Financial Officer in 2007. He has served in a number of financial and senior executive positions since joining the company in 1997. Prior to his appointment as CFO, Mr. Radecki served as Vice President of Research Operations, the company’s largest operating area, and before that he was Director of Accounting and Finance where he was involved in every aspect of the company's accounting and finance functions in the U.S. and U.K. – from internal audit, tax and budgeting to SEC reporting and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. Mr. Radecki also served as an integral member of CoStar's IPO team in 1998 and follow-on public offering in 1999. He has played a key role in the company's mergers and acquisitions, including the purchase, integration and operation of Comps, Inc. in 2000, FOCUS in 2003, and the Scottish Property Network the following year. Prior to joining CoStar, Mr. Radecki was the accounting manager at Axent Technologies, Inc. a publicly held international security software company. He also worked at Azerty, Inc. and the public accounting firm, Lumsden & McCormick, LLP, in Buffalo, NY. He earned a B.S. in business administration and a dual degree in both accounting and finance from the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Frank Simuro, Chief Information Officer, joined the Company in December 1999. Prior to joining CoStar Group, Mr. Simuro was Director of Data Warehousing at GRC International, a division of AT&T Corporation. Prior to GRC, Mr. Simuro was a technology consultant specializing in operational efficiency and database technologies. Mr. Simuro holds a Masters degree in Information Systems from George Washington University and a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from State University of New York -Geneseo.
Jennifer Kitchen, Senior Vice President of Research, oversees CoStar Group's initiatives for gathering, researching and verifying commercial real estate property data, both in the field and in research centers in Bethesda, Columbia and White Marsh, Maryland; San Diego, California; Chennai, India; and Manila, Philippines. Ms. Kitchen first joined CoStar in 1994 as a research analyst for the company's first New York City research team and has held increasingly responsible management positions since then. Between 1995 and 1997, she led CoStar’s research expansion into the Los Angeles market and managed its research operations on the West Coast. In 1998, Ms. Kitchen established CoStar's first field research and photography operations, earning a subsequent promotion to director of field research and photography. She was appointed vice president of field research in 2004, where she led the company’s overall field operations for collecting building-level data and photographing properties throughout the United States. Ms. Kitchen holds a B.A. from Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts.
John Stanfill, Senior Vice President of Sales & Customer Service, first joined us in June 1995 as an Account Executive for the New York City market. Since then, he has held positions of increasing responsibility at CoStar, ranging from business development and national market expansion to management of the Company’s Inside Sales Division. Before being appointed Senior Vice President of Sales & Customer Service, Mr. Stanfill held the position of Senior Vice President of Marketing & Product Management. Mr. Stanfill received a B.A. from Boston University.
Jonathan Coleman, our General Counsel and Secretary, first joined us in May 2000 as Deputy General Counsel. From October 1996 to May 2000, Mr. Coleman was a Trial Attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Division. Prior to that, Mr. Coleman was an associate at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, where he practiced commercial litigation. Mr. Coleman received a B.A. in economics from Dickinson College and his J.D. from George Washington University.
Paul Marples, Managing Director of CoStar’s European operations, previously served as Managing Director of Property Investment Exchange Ltd. (Propex), a provider of Web-based transaction platforms and data exchanges in the U.K. commercial property market. Propex was acquired by CoStar in the first quarter of 2007. Mr. Marples began his career in the commercial property industry in 1984, as a Chartered Surveyor for Weatherall Green and Smith (Atisreal) in London and Spain. From 1984 to 1996, Mr. Marples rose from Chartered Surveyor to Partner (London) to Managing Director (Spain) of Weatherall Green and Smith. In 1996, he established Brown Cooper Marples (BCM), a London-based investment brokerage firm where he served as Managing Director, before helping launch Propex beginning in 2001 through the consolidation of a number of property-related, Internet-based businesses. Mr. Marples earned a M.A. in geography from Oxford University.