Women in CRE: Soultana Reigle

At all times, Soultana Reigle emphasizes the “we” rather than the “I.” That’s because she sees her job as motivating her teams on the front lines—including portfolio managers, asset managers and transactions specialists—to lead others and make decisions in the same way.

“There is nothing that a strong team cannot achieve, and it’s the greatest feeling when a team is operating on all cylinders,” Reigle related.

As head of U.S. equity, Reigle is responsible for the performance and ongoing growth of the firm’s equity strategies and operations in the United States, including direct oversight of U.S. equity portfolio management, transactions and asset management. In her role as senior portfolio manager for value-add investment strategies, Reigle leads a team of experienced portfolio managers who focus on producing value-add returns for investors. She oversees $57.3 billion in assets under management as of the first quarter of 2024.

Based in Newark, N.J., she’s a member of the firm’s global management council, the global, U.S. equity and U.S. debt investment committees and the U.S. equity management council.

Reigle’s first job as an analyst at LaSalle Partners ignited a passion in her for real estate. Reigle moved on to Transwestern Investment Co., where she was a vice president of development and managed office and industrial developments. Since 2001 she has spent her career at PGIM Real Estate.

Let your voice be heard

She credits a boss who early on helped her realize “she had an obligation to contribute voice to the table, to help drive conversation, to ask questions and to share input.”

Because mentors have been such a factor in her career growth, Reigle advises others to give back and help younger women find a shorter path to achieve their goals. For a long time, Reigle shared, there were no senior-level women for her to look up to.

“That’s changed drastically since, and we now have many women in senior positions, especially at PGIM Real Estate,” she noted. “Nearly a third of our executive directors and managing directors are women.”

While there has been progress in creating a more inclusive environment, Reigle said CRE needs to do more to drive change.

“We can do this by focusing on diversity across internship programs, sponsoring real estate clubs at universities and creating programs for students run by industry organizations,” said Reigle, who holds dual bachelor’s degrees in economics and history from Northwestern University.

Read the September 2024 issue of CPE.