CREW celebrates 2017 awards

The Charlotte Country Club played host to the 2017 CREW Charlotte awards luncheon.

A crowd of about 150 gathered at the Charlotte Country Club Tuesday for the annual Commercial Real Estate Women Charlotte chapter awards ceremony.
The event was sold out and outgoing CREW Charlotte President Jessica Rossi presided over her final meeting. Molly Grantham of WBTV handled emcee duties as guest speaker.

Rossi took the time to acknowledge key members and the various past presidents in attendance. The inaugural graduates of the “Becoming an Authentic Leader” class were also recognized. The leadership program will return in 2019. For 2018, CREW will facilitate a mentoring program instead of the leadership class.
Rossie also thanked nine members of the CREW board personally for their assistance throughout 2017, including: Sallie Jarosz of New Dominion Bank; Kim Marks of Progressive AE; Amy Davis of JLL; Liz Etheredge of Mecklenburg Paint Company; Nichole Kelley of Wells Fargo Bank; Becky Lindahl of Katten Muchin Rosenman; Scarlett Powell of Unified AV Systems; Robin Turner of O’Leary Waste and Christie Zawtocki of Hart and Hickman.

Grantham spoke off the cuff and addressed topics ranging from work/life balance to discussing her new book, Small Victories.
“In the past two years my career has taken a real beating,” Grantham said. “It has been a real tough year for reporters and people who value facts and have sources – not just one. If you see it on my Facebook page you can trust it. But the entire industry has been painted with the same brush.”
Grantham also spoke about her charity “Molly’s Kids” which helps kids that are sick in the Charlotte area. And discussed how adding two children to the mix of her intense daily routine of being a reporter was a life-changing event.
“I’m still Molly but I’m like a better version of Molly and I love that,” she said.
The book grew out of various Facebook posts that Grantham had been publishing online during her time recovering from the birth of her second child.

After Grantham’s keynote address, awards were handed out in six categories. Winners for 2017 were:

• Angie Beard, Studio Fusion, Rising Star award
• Robin Turner, O’Leary Waste, Networker of the Year award
• Adrienne Bain, Citizens Bank, Outreach award
• Mike Schrum, Terracon Consultants, Men Empowering Women award
• Cindy Wolfe, Bank of the Ozarks, Deal of the Year award
• Ryan Ramey, Lincoln Harris, Member of the Year award
• Molly Carroll, Trinity Partners, President’s Choice award

“This year has been an incredible and humbling experience and I’ve gotten just as much out of my presidency as I put in,” Rossi said in her closing remarks.

The new president for CREW Charlotte is Adrienne Bain. She will be the 28th president.