Delgado

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Kathy Delgado

Vice President of Marketing

Kilroy Realty Corp.

Claim to Fame: Leased 300,000 square feet at Airport Center so far this year

When you’re vice president of marketing for a major commercial developer, you don’t spend your time dreaming up glossy brochures or print ads. You do hard-core leasing, which is Kathy Delgado’s forte.

She is actively involved in filling Kilroy’s Airport Center in Long Beach, a 901,000-square-foot office project now in its fourth phase. So far this year, Delgado has leased 300,000 square feet at the Airport Center, including a 154,000-square-foot deal by Epson America and another 107,000-square-foot transaction by Scan Healthcare.

Not bad given that the average lease deal in Long Beach is 3,300 square feet.

“You have to be a strong negotiator, but it boils down to having a strong work ethic,” she said. “You have to be a genuinely positive person to do well in this business. It can be a roller-coaster ride, and success comes in various forms. It is not just big checks, but also being able to learn from lost deals.”

A Chicago native, Delgado came to Los Angeles 13 years ago and was hired as a secretary by Kilroy in 1988, shortly before the bottom fell out of the market.

“Kathy is extremely passionate about what she does,” said John Kilroy, president of Kilroy Realty. “When she came here from Chicago, she wanted to work at Kilroy, but because there were no jobs open in development, she asked to work as a secretary and move her way up. And that’s exactly what she did by being focused and dedicated.”

In retrospect, the real estate bust of the early ’90s was a great opportunity for her.

“A lot of people went out of the business and companies were brought down to skeleton crews,” Delgado said. “The people who hung in there got a lot out of the experience. I got the chance to learn all different aspects of commercial development, because there was no one else to do the job if I didn’t. Everyone can do well when the market is healthy, but the real challenge is to do well when the market is tough.”

Edvard Pettersson

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