Leading a Built Environment Orchestra

A collection of skilled musicians doesn’t truly become an orchestra until the conductor’s baton falls to cue the first notes. Rafael Carreira sees himself as a different kind of conductor.

Rafael is executive vice president at Riverside Investment & Development Company, a Chicago-based boutique real estate firm. In that capacity, he brings together diverse stakeholders to develop and finance millions of square feet of commercial space across the US.

“The beauty of an orchestra is all these people are playing instruments that may not mean very much by themselves, but collectively, they create a wonderful, beautiful symphony. The conductor is there to make sure everybody is on the same page,” he said. “That’s my role. I'm there to get everybody on the same page to create a commercial space that’s really cool and meets peoples' needs.”

In that role, Rafael focuses on current projects, and in another capacity, he is influencing the future of the built environment sector. Rafael teaches Finance and Accounting for Executives in Northwestern Engineering’s Master of Science in Executive Management for Design and Construction (EMDC) program.

The course — co-taught by Rafael and Jason Heider, chief financial officer at Project Management Advisors — gives students the knowledge needed to be successful executives who can better understand and communicate their companies’ financial goals.

Rafael’s portion of the class focuses on the particulars of project capitalization and financing.

“The biggest thing I hear from students at the start of class is how difficult financing a project can be and not understanding how it works,” said Rafael, who has been in the built environment sector for more than three decades and is in his second year as an EMDC instructor. “Whether you are the contractor, the architect, or a consultant working on a project, when you leave the class, you will understand how the financing aspect of a project works and how important it is.”

No matter how idyllic a property or how beautiful a building's design, a project goes nowhere without capital to build it, Rafael tells his students. Turning potential funding into actual dollars requires the conductor to coordinate a variety of stakeholders, some of whom may have competing interests.

It’s a job Rafael relishes.

“The wonderful thing I get to do is create opportunities,” he said. “Whether it be a brand new building built from the ground up or a building that is being rehabbed, it really is creating something, including a great business opportunity.”

As Rafael sees it, every project is like creating a new business. That view keeps him in the mindset of a startup founder.

It’s a framework he tries to instill in his EMDC students.

“Entrepreneurship is finding an interesting piece of property and creating a really cool piece of real estate on it,” he said. “That takes architects, contractors, construction workers, tenants, leasing agents, marketing — it takes all of those people.”

And when all of those people work together in harmony, the project can turn into a visual version of a beautiful symphony, Rafael said.

His mission in the EMDC program is to help students understand how to integrate a variety of roles and functions to improve project outcomes.

“What I bring to the program is many years of experience,” Rafael said. “To stick with the orchestra theme, a lot of the students who come to the program may be really good at clarinet, but they may not understand what it is to be a percussionist. My goal is that when they leave, they realize, ‘Hey, maybe I can lead this orchestra.’”