Director, Leasing, Transactions,

Job Description

Role Summary

Responsibility for the leadership & oversight in the development of strategy and managing the leasing process and execution of all transactions for Sun Life occupied leased properties across North America consisting of ~3.4M square feet 190+ leases. In addition, responsible for the management of the real estate due diligence for all new transactions and acquisitions that Sun Life pursues in North America.

What will you do?

Strategy —Participate in the strategic review process for all NA based leasing and responsible, with strategy team, for the creation of new leasing strategies including moves, renewals, consolidations, terminations and expansions across the portfolio. Shared responsibility for business case preparation, oversight and completion of the approval process. Responsible for the financial analysis of strategic options and contemporaneous approval with US and Canadian Finance. Participate in the implementation of leasing strategies, leasing and site selection as it relates to the Sun Life Financial Centers (FCs).

People Management —Provide overall leadership and management to a leasing team including a manager of lease transaction and a real estate leasing clerk. Provide strategic direction, management and assist in developing professional development plans for each individual.

CRE Management Team —Participate in leadership and management team activities with five other Directors and reporting to the AVP of Corporate Real Estate. Tasks include strategic planning, overall team management, goal setting, professional development, risk assessment, financial review, and collaboration with peers.

Financial Oversight —Responsible for all budgeting and oversight/management of lease expense in the team aligned to overall departmental team budget. Participate in the creation of annual rent expense budgets for team and individual facilities and manage and report on results monthly, quarterly and ad hoc or as requested. Participate in 5 and 10 year capital planning for leases that reflects the needs of the portfolio. Work with Canada and US Finance to assess and manage leasing expense in the overall portfolio.

Reporting -Responsible for the reporting on lease status to AVP and senior leadership on a monthly and quarterly basis; creation of ad hoc performance analysis, powerpoint presentations, excel spreadsheets and other financial and data driven analyses as needed.

North American Insurance – Responsible for tracking changes in portfolio square footage and major leasehold improvements within North American Sun Life portfolio, including DentaQuest office and Advantage Dental+ clinics. Support the tracking of Professional Corporation insurance for DQ State entities.

CRE Risk -Responsible for working with CRE leadership to gather and assemble reporting on CRE’s risk’s & compliance withing Sun Life’s overall Operational Risk framework.

Specific Responsibilities

Transactions Leadership

Provide leadership and focused execution of all lease transactions across North America. This includes aligning with the business unit on site selection that best meets their criteria, lease negotiation, obtaining necessary approvals, review and approval of legal paperwork, managing the hand off to projects, operations and admin for space build out and set up.

Manage the lease expiries and leverage critical dates and lease rights of the North American leased office portfolio, actioning when required (ie noting renewal notice dates, early lease termination dates etc).

Manage the lease expiries and critical dates for the Financial Center ( FC) portfolio along with business partners on the FC side; 50% + of workload

Work with the legal department on all documentation, lease review, subleases, surrenders, estoppel certificates, finalizing paperwork for execution. 

Responsible for obtaining business unit and executive approval of transactions. Currently Ariba is used for deal approvals. Ensure Ariba platform provides for all legal documents to be loaded into our SLF Contract Management System

Manage the external relationship with our North American service provider Cushman and Wakefield including direction on all lease negotiations.

Strategy, Insights & Reporting

With support of transactions team & partnership with workplace strategy:

Develop and implement the leasing strategy for the Sun Life (SL) North American leasing portfolio.

Develop and implement portfolio leasing strategies in both Canada and the US including lease consolidations, terminations, additions, and subleases.

Prepare PPT decks for deal presentation and Excel analysis for NPV and NER calculations. Sponsor and support lease transactions at major sites in both Canada and the US.

Manage the business case process for office renewals/relocations, working with the business unit to achieve their objectives regarding timing and office location, cost etc. (meet criteria established).

Provide ad hoc real estate support and market intelligence to all members of CRE and SL Business Partners as required.

Lead communication and dispute resolution for all landlord interactions on lease interpretation issues. Be the point of escalation with LLs.

Provide strategic portfolio planning, due diligence and spreadsheet analysis for all new Merger and Acquisition activity.

Lead Integration of leasing operations as part of acquisitions into the overall Sun Life real estate leasing model.

With support of CRE leadership, assemble operational risk reporting for all CRE operations as required by Sun Life’s risk framework.

What do you need to succeed?

Work Experience

8 - 10 years of experience or an equivalent combination of education and experience in a corporate real estate leasing/transaction, finance or investment area.

Relevant management and team leadership experience of leasing group of 2-3 individual staff members.

Passion for real estate transactions, curiosity, drive, mindset of being independent and self starting required

Competencies

Fluent understanding of the institutional level, corporate real estate leasing function

Ability to lead and manage a team of leasing professionals

Ability to communicate at a high level to senior executives in the organization on strategic goals and direction of the portfolio and underlying projects

Thorough understanding of leases and lease documentation, the transaction process, business units, SLF space standards

Strong communication skills, both written and oral, and the ability to present complex deal terms to the business units and executive teams effectively

Strong working knowledge of financial aspects of real estate leasing; strength in NPV analysis and net effective rent concepts

Solid understanding of accounting implications in leasing including writeoffs, depreciation effects and IFRS concepts

Strong working knowledge of Excel, Powerpoint and Word for analysis and presentation work product.

Strong knowledge of systems and software related to corporate real estate functions and other related fields (Costar, Ariba, Teams)

As this position is posted in several locations, we specify that bilingualism (French, English, both oral and written) is required for Quebec only for the frequent interactions with English and French-speaking colleagues or internal partners across Canada or worldwide.

Education

Bachelor’s Degree in a related field.

Masters of Corporate Real Estate (MCR), PMP, MBA all an asset but not required