Tsering Yangki
Executive Vice President, Real Estate Finance and Development, Dream Unlimited Corp.
Sector: Private Sector
Discipline: Finance
Year: 2021
Magic Moment: I worked as a consultant on a foreign direct investment strategy with a focus on real estate. Till then in my career, I was focused on becoming an academic in international relations, as I wanted to focus on the importance of negotiations in conflict areas. Working as a consultant on the subject, allowed me to understand how interconnected, interdependent and multi-disciplinary real estate is. Real estate intersects: history, politics (local and federal), identity (personal and political), security, health, business, society, planet, technology, and economics (micro and macro). It was moments during that consulting period especially during my conversation with the stakeholders– decision makers and those affected–that shaped both my intellectual & personal curiosity in real estate. Being born a political refugee in India, there was a natural interest to understand land rights, ownership, and equity. To emerging young leaders this is the key. By aligning your personal values & interests with your skills & work experiences enables you to be fully vested in your work. Finding this alignment is not always easy — it might take a magic moment or two; sometimes it is linear and sometime its not. It is your own journey.
Key Influence: My mother, Tsundu (in Tibetan means perseverance) fled her country, Tibet, in her teens. She built her life on kindness, ‘perseverance’, ethics, entrepreneurship, hard work, and resilience. She prioritized education & instilled in us the quest for constant learning. She taught us on the preciousness of human life, ability to embrace joy & humor, humility, and the importance to know that it is always the right time to speak up/for and help others less fortunate. How she lives, lived her life through both her perspective and actions has influenced and shaped my life. On her shoulders I rise.
My brother’s ability to bring together people (from all walks of life, with diversity of ideas, lived experience), foster relations, harness potential into kinetic energy. Be it billion dollar project finance across the world, or drive mindfulness in Wall Street or build capacity in rural India, he is driven to empower, and effect change for a more transformative society and economy.
Next Big Challenge As An Industry: The next big challenges to tackle as an industry and as a successful city-region, is how do all stakeholders coordinate & align ourselves to address the intersection of societal, economics, health, climate change and technological issues.
Secret Talent: Now that is a secret!
On Championing Others… I feel privileged to have the platform today, which was shaped by so many others before me. I owe to them and the industry that I love to champion the best minds, best ideas & talents, by engaging youth, speaking at panels so that others in the audience can identify, and be part of conversations that may deal with policy matters to ensure that all voices are equally represented.
One word that captures you: Resilient and curious. I believe that any challenge and adversity is transformative in nature, making me quite resilient with respect to seeing things through but also knowing when to adapt or pivot. As cliche as it sounds I am a lifelong learner, always curious to learn.