During her two years at Grubb & Ellis/BRE Commercial, marketing director Lesley Simmons took the lead in creating strategic marketing initiatives that helped the firm broker more than $1 billion in business.

The 33-year-old Simmons led the charge to standardize all corporate marketing materials, a move that maintained brand awareness for the commercial real estate firm.
To accomplish that, she built and oversees a marketing and business development department. Her “Winning the Business” campaign helped brokers approach new opportunities from the client’s perspective.

Outside of work, Simmons is committed to developing tomorrow’s leaders. Her activities include volunteer teaching at the high school level, serving as a mentor/adviser for jobs and internships along with participating in the Corporate Leaders Advocating Success Skills program. She’s also an adviser to the Young Professionals Committee of Big Brothers/Big Sisters of San Diego County.

Simmons has served on the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corp.’s economic prosperity committee and the Urban Land Institute’s program committee. As president of the local chapter of the Society for Marketing Professional Services, she was instrumental in it winning the 2004 grand prize in a nationwide “Striving for Excellence” competition.

“I am absolutely passionate about marketing,” says Simmons. “I get to do what I love every day.”

That gusto extends to her free time. In February Simmons, who is single, rode a bobsled in Olympic Park in Utah. Traveling at a rate of 85 miles per hour, the trip took 56 seconds. “I like experiencing things so that later in life I’ll have a great story to tell,” she says.