Alumni Profile: Susan Chapman

MBA 1998
Global Head of Operations
Citigroup Realty Services

Susan Chapman, MBA '98 in Real Estate and Urban Land Economics, appeared alongside such familiar names as Tiger Woods and Halle Berry in Black Enterprise magazine's list of 50 individuals under age 40 who are emerging leaders in their fields. Chapman is Global Head of Operations for Citigroup Realty Services.

Previous to her current role, Chapman was the director of global real estate at an international communications and information services company where she grew the firm's real estate acquisitions to more than 13-million-square-feet. She later joined Citigroup Realty as Chief Strategy Officer and Senior Vice President, and was appointed to her current position in August 2005, where she manages the day-to-day operations for 85 million square feet of space in 96 countries. It's her team's responsibility "to handle all of the mergers and acquisitions activity on the due diligence [side] as well as bringing properties into the portfolio or disposing of them," says Chapman. Essentially, her division manages all of the real estate that supports Citigroup's businesses worldwide.

Chapman's division buys, sells, and builds properties for one of the most complex portfolios in the world. "At the end of the day, you've got to be able to build real estate," says Chapman, who holds the No. 2 spot in the business unit. "That equals handling everything from policies and procedures to branch rollout to relationship management strategy, making sure all of the nuts and bolts are in place," she says.

Chapman credits the impressive Wisconsin Business Alumni network for being a large factor in her choice to come to the School of Business at UW-Madison. "I chose Wisconsin because it has one of the best real estate MBA programs and one of the best alumni networks I've ever seen," she said. "Wisconsin alumni always returned my phone calls.every time I talked with Wisconsin people, there wasn't the sense of competition you get in a lot of programs."

In true Wisconsin fashion, Chapman may not always fit the profile of a typical executive. "I still crack jokes around the office," but she knows how and when to get to work, juggling an array of projects from preparing a presentation for the CEO to take to the board to dealing with three audits all at once.

Chapman has spent the last two years flying around the globe, and she says that her UW experience "exposed me to new opportunities and gave me a different perspective. The trips I made abroad opened my eyes to the opportunities. I knew then that international real estate was something I wanted to add to my repertoire, and I know spend the majority of my professional efforts on projects outside the United States."

Although she is busy traveling the world, Chapman still attempts to keep in touch with classmates and past professors and has been a good friend of the School of Business.

"Whenever I get out my checkbook for charitable purposes, I give it to Wisconsin."