Blake Okland — Vice Chairman & Head of US Multifamily at Newmark

Mr. Blake Okland serves as Vice Chairman and Head of US Multifamily for ARA, A Newmark Company and Newmark Knight Frank. Acting as a unifying figure for ARA Newmark's offices throughout the country, Mr. Okland's role is to increase collaboration and improve service to clients nationwide by identifying and executing strategic initiatives, business line and geographic expansion and recruiting. Mr. Okland also leads business development nationally as the face of the brand, maintaining relationships with large institutional clients to help ARA secure business and engage on complex national and global assignments. Since 2000, Mr. Okland has led or been meaningfully involved in multihousing transactions worth more than $10 billion. He has extensive experience leading multimarket portfolios as well as multiple institutional grade individual transactions. Prior to the formation of ARA Newmark, Mr. Okland served as President of ARA for four years. He also led the company's governing body, the National Executive Committee, during this period. Before his role as president of ARA, Mr. Okland served as a member of the National Executive Committee for five years and played a key role in the firm's acquisition by Newmark Knight Frank. Additionally, while holding these company-wide positions, Mr. Okland served as a Principal and Partner of ARA Carolinas. In this position, he and business partner Dean Smith grew the business into the Carolinas' dominant multihousing brokerage. Mr. Okland has been with ARA Newmark for over 13 years. Before joining ARA, Mr. Okland worked with CBRE's Atlanta-based national multihousing investment properties team for five years. A key member, he was involved in more than $450 million in apartment brokerage transactions during this time. Prior to his tenure with CBRE, Mr. Okland worked as an acquisitions and dispositions analyst with Archstone-Smith Communities Trust, where he was directly involved with transactions totaling approximately $500. He also monitored acquisition opportunities in specific Southeast markets including Raleigh, Charlotte, Washington, D.C., and Atlanta. Mr. Okland is an Executive Committee member of the National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC). He graduated from Point Loma Nazarene University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and political science.