Maria Beatriz Salcedo is the new Real Estate Manager at EY

Maria Beatriz Salcedo, known to many as "Bia," is the new Real Estate and Facilities Manager at EY for Latam. In this new role, the executive shares that she will bring all her experience from the real estate market. "I’ve been on both the investor and occupant sides, and now I'm wearing the facilities hat," she summarizes in an exclusive interview with REsource, where she reveals how this career shift happened. 

Originally from Colombia and with a degree in Engineering from Universidad Autónoma de Occidente, Salcedo began her career at Cyrela. At the time, she says, the company was opening an online customer service group for international clients. 

"I was really a broker. I worked for almost two years with Cyrela, and it was a lot of fun. It was my first contact with the market. I joke that when you get bitten by the real estate bug, you’re infected for life," she laughs. 

After her first contact with the real estate industry, Beatriz moved to HSBC as a Construction Finance Manager. She also worked at Brookfield, where she spent six years as the company’s Commercial Manager. "It was an amazing time! Brookfield is a fantastic company to work for, and they really care about their people," she comments. 

Salcedo also served as VP of Real Estate at Invest Bank, working in acquisition and sales, as well as asset management. She recalls assisting developers in raising capital for certain SPEs (special purpose entities), which are created by developers when they have a new project. 

"I remember that while I was there, we sold some of the shopping centers that belonged to Brookfield to third parties. We had mandates for some companies within the Brookfield group, as well as mandates for external companies," the executive recalls. 

WeWork also played an important role in her career, where she spent over a year. At the coworking company, Beatriz worked on the other side of the coin, serving as Head of Expansions in Brazil. 

At one point in her career, the executive mentions that she had a personal project with a business partner. However, it was difficult at that time to pursue her entrepreneurial desire. 

"Entrepreneurship is always very exciting, but it’s very challenging in a country like ours. At the time, I was a single mother with a young child, and it wasn’t easy to lead an entrepreneurial life at that moment," she explains.