Rich Bettina
Boston – The Boston office of Cresa and Margulies Perruzzi announced Rich Bettina, senior director of leasing for Fresenius Medical Care North America (FMC), was named the Real Estate Executive for the Americas by CoreNet New England.
The End User Leadership Award is designed to recognize a North America CoreNet Global New England member who provides leadership to the success of the corporate real estate industry and of their department, team, and company. Bettina was nominated by Marc Margulies, FAIA, LEED AP, principal and senior partner at Margulies Perruzzi, and Tim Myllykangas, managing principal at Cresa.
Bettina is an experienced professional with over 30 years of director-level management experience in North America, Latin America, and Asia Pacific for companies such as FMC, Dell/EMC, Teradyne, and IBM.
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He has demonstrated expertise in corporate real estate across all aspects of portfolio management including site expansions and consolidations, lease transactions, project management, and facilities services.
“I have worked closely with Rich since he joined FMC as the director of transaction management – lease renewals for North America in 2018. It is truly impressive what he has done in such a short time,” said Myllykangas. “Rich has a unique skill set not seen in most corporate real estate executives. Beyond basic real estate strategy and portfolio management, he has a strong knowledge and understanding of how to navigate successfully through the many management layers in a very complex and large organization. He quickly maps out the landscape of top stakeholders, builds relationships at key levels, and comes up with a plan to improve strategy, process and measurable results for the company.”
“Just as the COVID-19 pandemic hit, FMC was in the early stages of the complete transformation of its 2.6 million sq. ft. of non-clinical workspace under Rich’s direction,” said Margulies. “Recognizing the enormous opportunity presented by dozens of lease expirations and underutilized sites across the U.S., Rich assembled a team to investigate consolidation efficiencies that would simultaneously improve collaboration and flexibility. Pivoting rapidly in response to COVID, Rich redirected his team to build leadership and staff consensus around a fully unassigned, highly remote workplace, dubbed the ‘Future of Work’ at FMC.”
At Fresenius, Bettina is responsible for over 3,000 clinic and office sites and for negotiating 380 lease transactions annually. He manages 20 employees who direct and manage office lease renewals, site consolidations, and all aspects of dispositions throughout North America. He works directly with all company executives including eight general managers and 40 regional vice presidents with ~ 30 million sq. ft. across 3,500 locations.
“I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity to receive this award which was only achievable by teaming up our Fresenius employees with hand-picked industry partners as part of our Corporate Core team. This core team was developed prior to the pandemic and was initially focused on utilization metrics for portfolio optimization,” said Bettina. “The arrival of COVID-19 and its effects on the workplace enabled this team to shift priorities and accelerate its efforts toward Future of Work modelling led by our director of corporate facilities and construction, Scott Silva. This team’s motivation caused it to excel on all fronts, ensuring our real estate and facilities teams were well positioned to meet the needs of our employees and our company.”
