As part of our Women's LEAD series, we’re profiling women in leadership at Nicola Wealth. The series continues with a look at women leaders in our real estate team with Roz McQueen, Vice-President, Leasing. Having spent more than a decade in the Toronto real estate sector before moving to Vancouver, Roz shares her thoughts about relationship-building whether it's through mentorship or surrounding yourself with supporters within the company and in the community.
If there’s one thing Roz McQueen enjoys above all else, it’s interacting with people. A self-described extrovert, Roz joined Nicola Wealth in 2021 and is currently the Vice President of Leasing. The role is a culmination of her leadership journey, one distinguished by many relationships she has nurtured along the way, both as a mentor and as a mentee.
"My cup is filled by meeting people, learning from them, trying to solve problems, and continuing to strive further, farther ahead," she says, adding with a laugh: "I’m usually one of the last ones to stick around at our events because I’m connecting with people."
Mike Grainger, Contract Asset Manager, describes Roz as a gifted communicator and compassionate leader. “Roz is just a good person,” he shares. “I hear this about her from many of our colleagues. She is very quick to say ‘good job’ or show appreciation. She is also empathetic and genuinely interested in her co-workers and their well-being.”
“The thing that attracted me the most to Nicola Wealth was the people,” she says. “I had a chance to meet Sveto [Zvijerac, VP, Leasing] and Liz [Firer-Gillespie, VP, Asset Management]. I ran into them a couple of different times and they just had great energy and collaboration. They seemed like they were having a lot of fun with what they were doing as well as having a great reputation in the industry.”
Roz’s role requires her to interact with numerous stakeholders and partners across the commercial real estate spectrum—from asset managers and tenants to listing brokers, architects, and designers. “It’s a fulfilling role where you can be a jack-of-all-trades,” she says. “You’re doing everything, from getting into design elements of how a tenant may lay out the space to finding business solutions to help a tenant’s business operations perform better. There are a lot of opportunities to jump in and take a bit more of a high-level strategic view.”
She also enjoys the responsibility that comes with helping support the portfolio’s performance. “It’s great to be on the forefront of driving revenues and making a difference for our funds and our investors, and to see the results we can achieve from the lease transactions we complete.”
Roz describes her leadership as something that is always evolving. “It’s always changing, moving, and growing. You're just trying to be better and learn more and absorb more and gain more experiences. My leadership approach has always just been to set a good example. The door is open. It's a big compliment when people come into my office and just want to talk to me about their work or professional challenges and ask for my opinion. I'm not leading by aggression or harping on people. Sometimes people really try to push and grind, and that is just not my approach.”
Roz is quick to credit her success to the support of mentors who have supported and guided her along the way. “One person when I was working in Toronto, I didn’t know she had plans to mentor me, but she just picked me. She didn’t have a mentor when she was starting out in the real estate industry, and she just decided to help me out. We're still friends to this day, and I still call her and ask her questions and really trust her advice.”
Her biggest supporter is the one she has at home—her husband, who she says has been integral to enabling her to thrive at work. “Behind the scenes, you need a really solid structure and foundation, and he provides that for our family,” she says, noting that she’s proud of the example they’re setting for their two young daughters. “We’ve reversed some of the traditional family concepts (where dad works and mom stays home). I’m excited for our daughters as they get older to see what they will choose to do and how they lead. I’m proud of what I have been able to do professionally and setting that example of being a female doing what you love and being respected.”
