Mark J. Riedy, PhD

It is with decidedly mixed emotions that I inform you that Dr. Norm Miller, professor and director of academic programs, has announced his intention to take a position as vice president of analytics at the CoStar Group. Norm would assume the position beginning Jan. 1, 2010 and will remain in San Diego. He has expressed an interest in continuing his relationship with the Burnham-Moores Center, which we would like to achieve and are discussing with the University's administration.

In the 2½ years that Norm has been with the University of San Diego, he has made innumerable contributions to the breadth, depth and quality of our real estate program. He has helped to elevate the stature of our program to a national level and made dramatic and meaningful strides in the area of sustainable research and education. He also has been a generous and supportive colleague and expert professor.

While all of us at the Center are thrilled for Norm to receive such a wonderful opportunity to work within the industry, we also are obviously sad to see him go. That said, I have always maintained that our accomplishments at the Burnham-Moores Center are a team effort and that our progress does not rise or fall with one person, including myself. To that end, we will work as a team to find a way to reassign Norm's responsibilities, both short- and long-term, and continue to advance the program.

In fact, several of our industry supporters have already quickly and generously offered their assistance in helping to fill any gaps left by Norm's departure. That our industry colleagues would take it upon themselves to see us through this transitional period is extremely heartwarming to all of us in the Center and demonstrates the integral support we receive from them and the strong sense of ownership they share in our program.

If you would like to contact Norm directly to offer him your congratulations, please do so at nmiller@sandiego.edu or by phone at (619) 260-7939.

As always, thank you for your continued support of the Burnham-Moores Center.

At a special dinner of Burnham-Moores Center faculty and staff, Policy Advisory Board Executive Committee member Jeff Reed, Wells Fargo, received the Daniel F. Mulvihill Leadership Award with his wife, Karen, in attendance.

As reported in the last edition of Pipeline, Reed received the award for his enthusiastic and longtime support of the Burnham-Moores Center. The award was created in 2002 to honor Dan Mulvihill, chairman of Pacific Southwest Realty Services, for his leadership in helping to launch USD's real estate program in 1992, as well as his intense involvement in building the program to its current level of prominence.

USD's MBA program ranked 21st in the world for integrating social, environmental and ethical issues into its curriculum, according to the Aspen Institute's 2009-10 edition of "Beyond Grey Pinstripes." USD jumped 15 points from the last report and placed highest in Southern California. Other schools from the region in the ranking are USC (#61), Pepperdine (#62) and Claremont (#89). USD ranked third on the West Coast, behind Stanford (#4) and UC Berkeley (#6); USD also ranked third among business schools at Catholic universities. Other Catholic schools in the ranking are Notre Dame (#5), Duquesne (#18), Loyola Chicago (#22), ESADE (#32), Georgetown (#35), Villanova (#55), Boston College (#73) and St. Joseph's (#76).

A full description of the ranking can be found at www.beyondgreypinstripes.org.

Burnham-Moores Center faculty, staff and students will attend next week's GreenBuild International Conference and Expo, which will take place Nov. 11-13 in Phoenix. The event is expected to draw well over 20,000 sustainable building professionals from across the country and around the world. The exhibit spaces at GreenBuild are extremely difficult to get; the Burnham-Moores Center was wait-listed for two years before being offered a booth.

On Friday the 13th, Norm Miller, professor and director of academic programs, will be presenting his new research on the productivity levels of employees who work in green buildings vs. those who work in non-green buildings, which he co-authored with CBRE. Miller's paper was one of only 112 accepted from the 1,300 that were submitted. Moreover, conference organizers say this was the most competitive and strongest program to date.

A group of MSRE students also will attend the conference to help promote the university's real estate program and further educate themselves on sustainable building issues.

If you will be attending GreenBuild, please stop by our booth, which is number T-8.

Chaiwat Ngamsakthaweechai

Until recently, 30-year-old Chaiwat Ngamsakthaweechai '08 (MSRE) led the life of a typical Southern Californian bachelor: dressing in jeans and polo shirts, living in shared housing in the Clairemont area, appreciating the beautiful young women and luxury cars that surrounded him and, in this economy, searching nonstop for a full-time professional position.

Starting this month, that life will change dramatically as Chaiwait returns to his native Thailand to study Buddhism for 90 days and become a monk. Chaiwat's study of Buddhism is actually his second: According to traditional Thai culture, a son embarks on the study once in his life — for his parents, himself and his future. The act is a sign of maturity in young men who desire to "educate their souls."

That Chaiwat is undertaking the process a second time makes him rare by Thai standards.

"This time is to fulfill my personal interest," he says. "Before I start my new life after school, I wanted to do this because when I start a new job, I won't have time to."

Chaiwat began his first study at the age of 20, but had to end it after 18 days to enter school. This time, he will have no interruptions to the three-month devotion to Theravada Buddhism — the branch that predominates in Southeast Asia and is known as the "School of the Elders."

Chaiwat will begin the experience by having his head and eyebrows shaved by a senior priest at a ceremony that respected family members and friends will attend. The exercise is the first step toward getting students to detach from outward appearances and external distractions.

Once inside the temple, he will don a floor-length yellow robe and renounce all modern technological conveniences, such as his cell phone, TV and iPod. He'll sleep on a small bamboo mat on the ground with one pillow and one blanket. A mattress, he says, would be "too thick, too high, too soft."

He'll awaken each morning at 5 a.m. and head out to the surrounding neighborhood in Bangkok with a large, helmet-like bowl to beg for food. The neighbors who wish to contribute food will call out and drop to their knees before him. As they stand up, they will place their contribution in his bowl — anything from fruits to fried rice.

He'll bring the food back to the temple and eat breakfast with his fellow monks. "I need to eat whatever they put in," he says. They will then have a group prayer session in the temple during which he will pray for those who gave him food that morning, as well as all of those who have touched his life.

"I'm going to pray for everyone around me — my parents, my instructors, the people who did good to me and those who did bad to me," he says. "I will forgive everyone."

He'll then go into private meditation, starting first with a 15-minute session and gradually extending the time as he builds his concentration with the help of a meditation instructor. After the morning meditation session, he'll eat lunch, made up of his leftover food from breakfast, and then join in an afternoon group prayer session and afternoon meditation session. He will have no dinner, but will pray and meditate again in the evening.

While he's at the temple, he will be allowed to talk with his fellow monks, but not engage in any lighthearted conversation. "There is no joking around — it's not proper," he explains.

Once he has completed his studies, Chaiwat will look for a position in commercial real estate in Thailand, with the goal of someday returning to San Diego to live and work. He believes that his practice as a monk will help him navigate the at-times tumultuous real estate industry.

"It's going to calm me down," he says. "I'm going to have really high self-control after this."

Mark J. Riedy, executive director, was the featured guest speaker at the San Diego chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals Oct. 21. He spoke to the group about the causes of the residential mortgage market collapse and prospects for its recovery.

Norm Miller, professor and director of academic programs, was a featured speaker on an Oct. 14 CCIM Webinar and an Oct. 15 CoStar Webinar where he presented his "Does Green Pay Off?" research. Miller was a panelist at the Urban Land Institute's Los Angeles Green Conference and Expo Oct. 20 and spoke on the topic "Going Beyond First: The Dollars and Cents of Green Building Investment and Valuation." On Oct. 29, Miller was a guest lecturer at MIT in Boston, where he spoke to a class of real estate, planning and engineering students about sustainable real estate strategies.

Over 50 students attended the first standard monthly Real Estate Society meeting of the academic year Oct. 29. The meeting was moderated by Real Estate Society co-chairs Ben Schwartz and Colin Phillips and featured a panel of professionals from five different sectors in the real estate industry, including: Doug Ceresia of NAI San Diego, Randy Chase of Pacific Alliance Appraisals, Brian Milich of The Corky McMillin Companies, Renee Savage '88 (BBA) of Capital Growth Properties Inc., and Jordan Zavislak of George Elkins Mortgage Banking Co.

The Real Estate Society is a 200-plus member student organization that provides resources and information to graduate and undergraduate students who are interested in studying and pursuing careers in real estate. Meetings are held once a month and feature real estate professionals who share their industry experience and insight with students.

During the Policy Advisory Board Commercial Real Estate Committee Meeting Oct. 27, committee members toured the new Student Life Pavilion on campus. The Pavilion, which celebrated its grand opening Sept. 24, is a four-story, 50,000-square-foot LEED-certified building near USD's main entrance. The building boasts a dozen different dining options, a full service grocery store, a weekly farmers market, a rooftop deck with bay and ocean views and houses offices for many of the student organizations on campus. For more information about the Student Life Pavilion, go here.

The Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate/CB Richard Ellis study on green building productivity was referenced in several publications including: INCLEAN Magazine, Sustainable Facility, Green Building Press, Reuters, Business Exchange, Eco-Structure.com, Mother Nature Network, Buildings, Greentech Media, SiloBreaker.com, and Revit3.com.

Norm Miller was quoted in an Oct. 14 story in SNL Financial on the reasons for the number of foreclosures in the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, California areas.

Norm Miller was quoted in an Oct. 19 blog entry on how a new short sale policy could reduce the number of foreclosures.

Norm Miller was quoted in an Oct. 26 San Diego Business Journal commentary on the new economics of commercial real estate.

Alan Gin was mentioned in several articles following his release of the USD Index of Leading Economic Indicators for San Diego County, which he complies for the Burnham-Moores Center. Articles appeared in sdnn.com, the San Diego Reader, the San Diego Business Journal, the San Diego Union-Tribune, The Daily Transcript, the Del Mar Times, San Diego 6 and voiceofsandiego.org.

An article authored by Fernando Lando '06 (MSRE) was published in the Urban Land Institute's October issue of Urban Land. The article addressed the legal implications of green buildings.

An article authored by Vivek Sah was published in ICA Institute Oct. 30. The op-ed piece discussed whether or not India is ready for REITs.