The Cornell Baker Program in Real Estate is excited to announce that our next speaker for the 2016-2017 Distinguished Speaker Series will be Tom Murcott of Gale International. Mr. Murcott is Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Gale International. He has worked at the firm for over 9 years. With more than 30 years of international marketing experience, Tom recently appeared on Bloomberg Business radio, in the Times of London, and at Cityquest (Saudi Arabia), and the New Cities Summit (Montreal).
In his role at Gale International, Tom provides strategic oversight for all corporate and project communications programs. Tom also serves as the Global Foreign Investment Officer, tasked with bringing investors and tenants to Songdo IBD. Sondgo is a $35-billion, 1,500-acre smart, sustainable city rising in Incheon, South Korea, which will ably serve as a new Korean hub for international commerce, trade, and research. Gale thinks that the idea of building a smart city is ambitious and innovative. “From an infrastructure perspective, we could lay the very latest connectivity technology into the ground before construction,” says Tom. Accordingly, Gale has partnered with Cisco in the development to provide the technical, internet-based infrastructure for Songdo’s buildings. “This will allow the occupants to control their air conditioning, their televisions, and even their elevators,” Murcott says. “Cisco has also built an HD telepresence system that we have installed in 14,000 residential units, which citizens will use to interact with city administrators, shopkeepers or healthcare workers.”
Gale International dates back to 1922, and has been mentioned in numerous international publications. Apart from Songdo IBD, Gale International’s past projects include a $350 million skyscraper project in Boston, a $1 billion commercial real estate fund with JPIM and Morgan Stanley Real Estate Funds, and 21W20, a collection of ultra-luxury homes in the Flatiron District of Manhattan.
A featured speaker at international conferences and events, Murcott advocates the economic and environmental benefits of smart, sustainable city-scale development.
