The Urban Land Institute (ULI) Toronto announces the appointment of Michelle Ackerman as the new chair of the Management Committee effective July 1st 2022, succeeding the tenure of Emma West, Partner, Bousfields. The announcement comes at a pivotal moment for the Toronto District Council as it prepares to welcome 4,000 people from across real estate and land use industries to Toronto as part of the ULI’s Spring Meeting in 2023. Scheduled for May 16-18 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, the Spring Meeting is one of two annual meetings hosted by ULI and 2023 marks only the second time this leading industry event will be hosted north of the border.

“The Toronto real estate and development story continues to set global standards. We look forward to welcoming the network of ULI members to our city in 2023 and are excited Michelle Ackerman has decided to rejoin our leadership committee as chair as we embark on this pivotal stretch for our district council,” says Richard Joy, Executive Director ULI Toronto. 

“I’d also like to take the opportunity to thank our current Chair Emma West, our Vice Chair Cyndi Rottenberg-Walker and the entire Management Committee for their ability to expand our local chapter’s membership, audience reach and global mission focused initiatives. Over the pandemic period ULI Toronto has grown into the largest District Council in the world in membership and audience reach.” 

“I am pleased to pass the leadership baton to Michelle who is uniquely positioned to build on the foundation we have built to drive a new multi-year strategy that will further establish the industry leadership position of ULI Toronto, including the critical ESG frontiers of social equity and global climate change” says West.

Ackerman has been a member of the ULI since 2015, and previously served as the Vice-Chair of the Management Committee from 2018 to 2020. An active member of ULI, Ackerman was also a recipient of the 2016 WLI Prologis Scholarship, was recognized in 2017 as a Champion by the Women’s Leadership Initiative at ULI Toronto, and is member of the UDMUC Bronze Product Council.

As an infrastructure and real estate development leader at the Kilmer Group, Ackerman specializes in delivering public-private partnerships, and large-scale residential and mixed-use projects such as the 2015 Pan/Parapan Am Games Athletes’ Village, and its legacy master planned Canary District community, which transformed Toronto’s downtown east into a vibrant mixed-income community. Other notable projects include the ONroute Highway Service Centres network across Ontario’s 400 series highways, Brightwater, the 72-acre redevelopment of the former Imperial Oil refinery site in Port credit, the Provincial Affordable Housing Lands Program in the West Don Lands, which will deliver over 2,300 rental units to market (including 30% affordable units) and serving as Project Director for the development of the first purpose-built, mixed-use Indigenous Hub in Canada.

“It’s incredibly rewarding to be rejoining ULI’s management committee later this year, and to build on the success of my predecessors, particularly in their adoption of a five-year strategic plan. While Toronto’s real estate and land use industries have proven resilient during the pandemic, we’re at a critical junction and the ULI’s ability to convene important conversations from an interdisciplinary network of professionals that span the entire built environment is more vital than ever,” says Ackerman.

ULI is the oldest and largest network of cross-disciplinary real estate and land use experts in the world. Founded in 2005, the Toronto District Council has grown into one of the largest in North America, with over 2,700 active members. Under the direction of ULI Toronto Executive Director Richard Joy, the new leadership will be tasked with continuing to build upon past successes, while broadening the discussions about progressive city building to a wider, community audience.