David Rocker

Giving Back: How Community Service Shapes Leadership and Perspective

The Power of Giving Back Over the years, I’ve come to realize that leadership isn’t just about guiding teams or making strategic decisions in the boardroom. True leadership also comes from understanding the world beyond your immediate responsibilities and giving back to the community that surrounds you. Community service has been a cornerstone of my […]

Shifting the Map: Where Real Growth Is Happening

For a long time, if you asked a room full of investors where the safest bets were in commercial real estate, you’d hear the same names over and over again—New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, maybe Los Angeles. These so-called “gateway cities” had the brand recognition, the corporate headquarters, and the international capital that made […]

Leading Through Listening: The Quiet Power of Mentorship

When people ask me what made the biggest difference in my career, I don’t talk about titles, deals, or promotions. I talk about people. I talk about the handful of mentors who showed up at the right time with the right words—and sometimes, just a listening ear. I also talk about the people I’ve had […]

Rebuilding with Dignity: Workforce Development That Changes Lives

When I think about the work I’m most proud of in my career, it’s not the deals closed or companies scaled. It’s the people—specifically, the people who were given a second chance and used it to transform their lives. Over the years, I’ve been lucky enough to work on some incredible workforce development initiatives, and […]

Purpose-Driven Workplaces: Why Who You Hire Matters

When I think about the kind of impact I want to have—not just in business, but in life—it always comes back to people. More specifically, it comes back to the people who are too often overlooked in the hiring process: our veterans, returning citizens, and underserved individuals who are more than capable, but rarely given […]

Beyond the Bottom Line: Giving Back as a Core Value

For most of my career, I’ve been focused on performance. Helping companies grow, scale, and optimize their systems is what I do. I love numbers. I love the process. But over time, I’ve learned something more important: no amount of business success matters if it doesn’t also make a difference in people’s lives. Community engagement […]