Ryan LLC: Our Commitment to Investing in and Empowering Women in Commercial Real Estate Remains Steadfast

Ryan’s commitment to investing in and empowering women is stronger than ever. We continue to listen and learn as we work to ensure our commitment creates a full suite of opportunities for our team members in their daily lives.

In 2020, Ryan made a commitment to expand the Firm’s diversity, equity, and inclusion initiative with a renewed purpose and clarity. Our mission is to foster a global environment of respect that empowers our people to celebrate all cultures and perspectives in the workplace, recognizing that diversity and inclusion drive creativity and innovation, which fuels our ability to deliver excellence. We are committed to meaningful, long-term change. 

Supporting Organizations that Support Women

In 2022, we joined the CREW Network and signed the CREW Pledge. We are excited to partner with CREW and other industry leaders to advocate for women in commercial real estate and beyond. Our very own Michelle Pink, Principal and Regional Leader in Calgary, was appointed to the CREW Network Scholarship Committee in March 2022. Karen Pierre, located in Dallas, Texas, was the 2024 Director of CREW Careers and is Vice-Chair of CREW in the Community, Dallas CREW’s philanthropic board, for 2025. We are proud to support our leaders as they take leadership positions in CREW, working to introduce and advance women in commercial real estate.  

Inclusive Culture

Ryan remains committed to creating a workplace where women and other underrepresented groups feel empowered. We began an intentional culture journey in 2018 with culture workshops that covered everything from well-being and psychological safety to bias and setting boundaries. These mandatory workshops ensure our entire Firm is aligned and facilitating an inclusive workplace culture, giving our team members the language, tools, and support to help make Ryan a great place to work for all.

We launched an incredible speaker series, and in 2022, Ryan introduced Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Office Hours—a monthly Firm-wide meeting facilitated by a leader in the space of DEI. Team members joined as they were able, and the conversations included everything from name pronunciation to allyship.

In 2023, we partnered with McKinsey and Company to conduct a comprehensive inclusion survey that allowed us to measure key dimensions of inclusion and identify gaps and opportunities across and within different groups and demographics. This 2023 inclusion survey is a benchmark survey for Ryan that will be revisited every two years to track key cultural components over time.

Pay Equity

At Ryan, we believe in empowering our team members to have ownership of their careers and futures. Pay transparency is one of the most powerful tools we’ve unleashed to help them achieve just that. Through pay transparency, our team members can better understand the factors contributing to their compensation and have a framework for discussing their career growth.

With this in mind, over the past few years, our Compensation team established a cadence to review all global compensation ranges, making regular market adjustments to ensure consistency across practices, teams, genders, and geographic locations. We also rolled out multiple training sessions to educate our team members on key concepts such as pay transparency, geographies, and compa-ratios. This was a significant moment in building trust and transparency, and we are proud to have taken this step toward empowering our team members.

Advancing Women

In 2021, we introduced a competency-based performance system that creates a framework for our performance reviews to hone in on specific skills and abilities directly related to job responsibilities. Competencies are specific to the role and department and are designed to reduce the opportunity for bias while encouraging meaningful talent development opportunities.

In 2023, we promoted 12% of our global female team members, which was on par with our 12% of global male team members. 

Our talent acquisition team is working on expanding our base of colleges, and they have partnered with our RyanMOSAIC diversity council to host diversity-focused seminars and conversations at a broad cross-section of minority-serving institutions and women’s colleges such as Spelman College.

Transparency and Accountability

In 2022, Ryan released our first-ever diversity report, and we continue to do so every year. We know that with transparency comes accountability. We have partnered with McKinsey and Company to revisit our assessment and data every year. The team of experts at McKinsey helps us strategize and plan as we move forward with our work in this space.