President and CEO of the third largest REIT in the U.S. Michael D. Fascitelli and world-class economist Peter Linneman debate the state of commercial real estate in the U.S. and around the globe in this lively dialog.

Mr. Fascitelli is president and chief executive officer of Vornado Realty Trust (NYSE: VNO), where he also serves as a Trustee of the Board.  Prior to joining Vornado, he led the real estate investment banking business of Goldman, Sachs & Co. He joined the firm in 1985 in the Real Estate Department and became a partner in 1992.  He also served on the firm’s investment committee for the Whitehall Investment Committee. In December 1996 he became president of Vornado Realty Trust.  Active in the real estate industry and in his community, Mr. Fascitelli is the chairman of the Samuel Zell and Robert Lurie Real Estate Center at the Wharton School. He is a Trustee and member of the Urban Land Institute. He serves on the Boards of Child Mind Institute, The Rockefeller University, and St. Bernard’s School.  From the Greater New York Councils Boy Scouts of America he received the Good Scout award and the James E. West Fellow award in 1997, and he received the Silver Beaver Award in 2003. 

Dr. Linneman is widely recognized as one of the leading strategic thinkers in the real estate industry.  He is the principal of Linneman Associates and also serves as the Albert Sussman Professor of Real Estate, Finance and Public Policy at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. A member of the Wharton faculty since 1979, Dr. Linneman served as the founding chairman of Wharton’s Real Estate Department and was the Director of Wharton’s Zell-Lurie Real Estate Center for 13 years.

Kicking off the Monday General Session is BOMA International President Henry Chamberlain discussing the State of the Industry 2011.