Clare De Briere
ULI Americas Chair

Clare De Briere is a native Angeleno and has spent her career creating special places for the citizens and visitors of Los Angeles.

Since 2018, Clare has served as Executive Vice President and Regional Manager in Los Angeles for Skanska USA Commercial Development. In this role, Clare is leading the team expanding Skanska’s real estate development business into Los Angeles. She is responsible for land acquisition, the development and design of new projects, tenant leasing strategy and execution of future projects. Skanska USA Commercial Development invests in and develops customer-focused and highly sustainable office and multi-family properties. Since 2009, Skanska has invested more than $2 billion in dozens of projects, self-financing the majority of them. Skanska has developed speculative offices for such clients as Bank of America, Brooks Sports, PwC and Tommy Bahama.

Clare De Briere began her development career in 1991 at The Ratkovich Company after graduating from UCLA. She engaged in property and construction management, leasing, financing and development management while earning her graduate degree at USC’s Lusk Center for Real Estate. Over her 26-year career at the company, she oversaw the acquisition, entitlement, planning, development and/or disposition of millions of square feet from The Wiltern Theatre, 5900 Wilshire, 800 Wilshire, The Alhambra, The Hercules Campus in Playa Vista and, most recently, The Bloc in downtown Los Angeles. Clare retired from the company, the last decade of which she spent as its Chief Operating Office and Executive Vice President.

Clare sits on the UCLA Ziman Center Board, the USC Lusk Center Board, and the Board of Central City Association.  She is an active member of the Urban Land Institute serving as the incoming Chair of the America’s Executive Committee, as a Global Governing Trustee, as the Los Angeles District Council Chair, on the national Advisory Committee for Building Healthy Places and Building Healthy Corridors. She has been named on the Los Angeles Business Journal’s Women Making a Difference list and has been on the Real Estate – Southern California’s Women of Influence list every year since 2003. Clare is also on the Advisory Board of the UCLA History Department; and served on the Executive Committee of the Board of the Los Angeles Conservancy.

Gwyneth Jones Cote
ULI Americas President

Multifamily industry leader Gwyneth Jones Cote, who most recently served as chief operating officer for Bell Partners, is the president of the Americas region at ULI. She works closely with Brinsden and the Americas Executive Committee, as well as ULI’s global leadership and staff to ensure that the Institute maximizes member engagement in the Americas region through the implementation of the Strategic Plan. She ensures ULI’s work in the Americas aligns with the Institute’s work in the Europe and Asia Pacific regions, and that it reinforces a culture of philanthropy that results in more resources to support ULI’s mission-driven activities. Cote serves on the board of Project REAP, an organization that serves as a bridge between talented minority professionals and commercial real estate companies looking for talent.

Cote, who served as Bell Partners’ chief operating officer from 2013 until the end of 2017, was responsible for a team of more than 1,400 employees and approximately 60,000 multifamily units. Prior to her service at Bell Partners, she consulted for several years to private real estate companies. Cote began her real estate career in 1989, joining the mid-Atlantic division of Trammell Crow Residential as a development associate after receiving her Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. She remained with Trammell Crow as it evolved into Avalon Properties and AvalonBay Communities. She served 15 years with AvalonBay Communities (and its predecessor companies), concluding her career as a senior vice president, responsible for property operations of 19,000 apartment units located east of the Mississippi River. She is a graduate of Swarthmore College, where she played two varsity sports and was selected as an All-American in lacrosse