RioCan CEO Spent Hot Summer Driving Across Ontario With No Air Conditioning and Only AM Radio

Jonathan Gitlin wasn't always the leader of one of Canada's oldest real estate investment trusts. One summer he was a law student traveling across Ontario in a broiling car closing puny residential real estate deals.

The 50-year-old president and chief executive of Toronto-based RioCan remembers that job with some fondness and embarrassment. He had to drive around the province in a car without air conditioning and only AM radio doing legal work as a conveyancer, which involves the legal process of buying and selling property, and not being as prepared as his adversaries.

"During law school, I was a real estate conveyancer, going from registry office to registry office and fighting with other conveyancers about closing little transactions," said Gitlin in an interview. "It was really the only summer job I could get. At the time, only the best of the best law students got summer jobs at big firms."

That was while he was at a smaller law firm for the summer back in the mid-1990s, and they acted on many deals for residential sales where people were moving locations for jobs. His job "is now done entirely electronically," he said.

But in those days, Gitlin would meet the legal representative on the other side of the deal and find himself humbled on a number of occasions by people with more experience.

"You waited to get a stamp, cheques were exchanged, and deals were done," said Gitlin. "But these were career conveyancers. I was a cocky kid in law school who thought I was cool because I was in law school. I thought I knew what I was doing, but they were way better at the job than I was."

On multiple occasions, the young lawyer in training would make the wrong move on a deal. "I learned a lot of humility, but I did learn about people and my own limitations," said Gitlin.

The experience served the CEO well when he replaced the legendary Edward Sonshine as chief executive of RioCan in April 2021 after starting at the REIT in 2005 and working his way up to the top at one of Canada's largest retail landlords.

Today, Gitlin figures his first job taught him about working with others and getting through some sticky situations on a tight timeline.

"I've had a lot of life lessons. I grew up reasonably poor and had a lot of different jobs in different places. Not just real estate. I worked in places like a ball-bearing plant or a paper-cutting factory," said Gitlin. "I worked with a number of demographic backgrounds and the ability to understand people from all different walks of life and what will interest them and create a dynamic to be able to be comfortable working with someone for a lengthy period of time that teaches me things every day I use in my job today."

So when he thinks back to that first commercial real estate job, it is with fondness.

"It gives me the ability to quickly assess what interests people and use that as a way to make them comfortable with me," said Gitlin. "The team from RioCan comes from all different walks of life. [As CEO], you have to be flexible and interested."

Everyone in commercial real estate had to start somewhere. First Job explores where careers began.