Great-West LifeCo’s Former Head of Real Estate Went From Deal-Maker to Cleaning Food Courts

Paul Finkbeiner's first commercial real estate job was working on a newly put-together acquisition team looking to buy premier malls across Canada. Within months, the market crashed, and he found himself the assistant property manager at one of those malls, cleaning the food court at times.

Finkbeiner was on top of the world in 1988 when he took a position at a new company called Trilea Shopping Centres that was created by legendary Toronto companies at the time Bramalea and Trizec Properties. His initial task was to find properties the company wanted to buy when they became available. But the real estate market had other ideas.

"I had a choice to become an assistant property manager at Scarborough Town Centre or Yorkdale. I picked Yorkdale," said Finkbeiner.

Some of Finkbeiner’s team members were laid off while others had to take different positions within the company.

"Now I've got this job where my boss tells me I have to do what everyone else does — no special treatment. One day, I'm wearing a bow tie and white shirt and I'm cleaning food courts. The next day, I'm polishing floors."

Before joining Trilea when he was 28, Finkbeiner had stints in engineering and banking but wasn't satisfied and ended up leaving a job at Royal Bank of Canada with no immediate prospects. He landed on the new career in real estate shortly afterwards, but everything changed in eight months.

"I had three degrees and experience, and I had been recruited. But the crash happened, and they had this job. When a crash happens, you take the job you are offered," said Finkbeiner. "I was doing my best to get through it."

Eventually, he moved on to a job as an analyst with Brookfield Properties, but the lessons he learned before served him well into the future.

"It was a great opportunity, but it was all about surviving," Finkbeiner says, adding Trilea was a fascinating experiment where people from different cultures were brought in to create a new company. "What came from that and what I learned was about people and being loyal to them and not just companies."

He is still friends with people from his first real estate job, and he used lessons from his time at Trilea later in his career, including serving as the real estate leader of Winnipeg-based Great-West Lifeco and its $28 billion global portfolio.

"You do understand bad things can happen, but you try to be kind about it. In some cases, you have to let people go because they are not performing, or maybe it's not the right place. You don't have to be a jerk about it," said Finkbeiner. "Sometimes you don't do anything wrong, and companies just change."

Finkbeiner stepped down at the end of September as the global head of real estate at Great-West Lifeco after nearly 24 years with the international financial services holding company. But he isn't done with real estate and is planning to join advisory and public boards and to be an active investor. In fact, he started Fink Advisory Management Corp. since leaving Great-West Lifeco last month and serves as president.

"I think real estate is better than other industries because it's not just about deals. It's about decades. You find you end up with long-term relationships," he said. "Real estate is a small world. It's a bit kinder, but it can be cutthroat, too."