The University of Virginia’s White Ruffin Byron Center for Real Estate today named Keven Lindemann (A&S ’91) as its Executive Director.
Lindemann has served as its Executive-in-Residence and has also been on the Center’s Advisory Board as its Vice Chair for Research. In his new role as Executive Director, he will be partnering with Center leadership and the Advisory Board to develop the organization’s strategic direction while collaborating with alumni and industry leaders to design programs promoting UVA’s real estate initiatives across the globe. He will oversee the Center’s rich ecosystem at the University, plot its yearly objectives, share outcomes with the community, develop and manage the Center’s annual budget, and more.
As an active member of the Advisory Board during the last two years, Lindemann is already very familiar with the work of the Center and its dedicated efforts in three main areas of focus: funding impactful research, engaging with alumni, “and most importantly, supporting students in their exploration of this fascinating industry,” he says. “Real estate is not just a financial instrument: It’s where people live, work, play, eat, and shop. It touches so many parts of our world.”
Lindemann comes to the Center with extensive professional experience in real estate and business data. In his most recent position as Head of Global Real Estate for the Market Intelligence division of S&P Global, he directed a team responsible for all the real estate data and analytics on a platform that served thousands of users at investment banks, fund managers, private equity firms, and public real estate investment trusts (REITs).
A product of UVA’s College of Arts & Sciences, where he pursued a B.A. in History, he later earned graduate degrees in Management, Finance, and Real Estate from the University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business. Additionally, he holds Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) designations. A fellow of the Homer Hoyt Institute and a member of the Real Estate Research Institute’s Advisory Board, Lindemann is a recognized expert in his field and has been cited in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Bloomberg, sharing insights on the topics of REITs and real estate capital markets. He has guest lectured at UVA’s McIntire School of Commerce and Darden School of Business and a number of other universities.
“Keven is the perfect choice for this role,” says Robert M. White Jr. (McIntire ’87), the Center’s Advisory Board Chair, Executive Committee Member, and the Founder of Real Capital Analytics. “In addition to his wealth of experiences directing a global real estate business, he has been very involved in the real estate research community and a long-time supporter of the real estate professors and students at the University.”
Collaboration and Connection
Following his history of close involvement within the Center’s Research subcommittee during his time on the Advisory Board, Lindemann emphasizes his commitment to ongoing support of real estate scholarship: “The funding of important and impactful research on the real estate industry is near and dear,” he says, noting that financial support for research remains a critical component of the Center’s ability to fulfill its pan-University vision.
Another of Lindemann’s chief goals is to continue building on the momentum created in the Center’s first few years by further developing a regular, robust cadence of industry events, such as its annual conference, in addition to hosting regional and national alumni gatherings. He insists that the Center is also poised to have a much greater impact helping students.
The hub for real estate studies at the University promotes the undergraduate Real Estate Minor program and other associated coursework to current and prospective students, offers students co-curricular educational and career-related opportunities with alumni and industry partners, advises case competition teams, sponsors student treks, and produces learning events such as the Sanderford Speaker Series, named in honor of the Center’s first Director, Drew Sanderford (A&S ’05, Architecture ’10).
In collaborating with alumni, corporate leaders, faculty, and students, Lindemann will guide the Center through its ongoing growth while bolstering the University’s range of real estate-related studies. As such, he endeavors to increase connections with a larger number of alumni working in the industry, pointing to “the incredible assets” of the network itself and the Center’s ability to connect people and act as a resource for alumni seeking support with research, data, staffing, projects, capital, and insights.
“The number of UVA graduates who are doing big and important things in the real estate industry is astonishing, especially if you consider that the Real Estate Minor has not been available to students until very recently,” he says, acknowledging the earlier groundbreaking curriculum work of Professors George Overstreet at McIntire and C. Ray Smith at Darden.
Ultimately, Lindemann is intent on increasing learning opportunities for students interested in studying and working in real estate. “There is so much that we can do. This industry is vast and touches every aspect of people’s lives. We have an incredible opportunity in front of us,” he says. “I can’t wait.”
About the White Ruffin Byron Center for Real Estate
Established in 2021 and administered by the McIntire School of Commerce Foundation, the White Ruffin Byron Center for Real Estate serves students, faculty, alumni, and industry partners across Grounds. Driven by its mission of enhancing the quality of the built environment, the Center aims to increase understanding of the built environment’s influence on our lives through discovery and debate relating to the art and science of real estate. Guided by a vision of becoming a globally preeminent academic real estate center recognized for supporting UVA’s real estate academic programs and serving as the pan-University hub for real estate activity, the Center creates extracurricular programs prioritizing students while enhancing their preparation to lead, learn, and serve. By enabling and sharing research that enriches lives and improves market functionality and policy-making, the Center helps cultivate a vibrant community of students, researchers, alumni, and industry partners who gather regularly for applied and shared learning.
