Martha O'Mara

Dr. Martha O'Mara is widely considered a leading authority on the integration of corporate real estate planning with business strategic planning. Her firm, Place Strategy Partners, specializes in advising institutional clients such as city, county and state governments and colleges and universities as well as economic development agencies. As a location strategy consultant, Dr. O'Mara understands the critical dependencies between long-term business success and investment in the strength of our communities. Over her career she has advised on the long-range portfolio strategy of nearly two billion square feet of occupancy for some of the largest corporate portfolios in the US and globally, including financial, professional services, and technology companies, as well as governmental agencies. These clients include over one-third of the largest 40 corporate office portfolios in the Fortune 100 and over 70% of the US GSA portfolio. Recently, Dr. O’Mara served as SVP, Head of Consulting, Americas for Colliers International. She joined Colliers when the company acquired her firm, Corporate Portfolio Analytics. Her book, Strategy and Place: Managing Corporate Real Estate and Facilities for Competitive Advantage was published by The Free Press and she has authored over two dozen academic and professional publications. Dr. O’Mara spent over a decade teaching as a professor at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and taught real estate finance and development, location strategy, doctoral research methods and urban development studios. She also helped develop the Advanced Management Development Program in Real Estate, an innovative senior management development program, at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.. Currently she is a Lecturer at Tufts University. She has taught executive education classes at Harvard Business School and the Harvard Graduate School of Design, the Center for Real Estate at MIT and for KIINKO, a Finnish institute. She is a frequent speaker at professional events. She founded the Executive Women in Corporate Real Estate in 2001 and organizes their annual retreat. She is on the Advisory Board of StateBook International, the leading economic development data integrator. Dr. O'Mara holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior jointly awarded by the Harvard Business School and Harvard's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. She also has an MA and an MBA from Harvard University, and a BA from the University of California, Irvine. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Companies

• Lecturer Tufts University (2021)
• Principal Place Strategy Partners LLC (2014)
• Senior Vice President, Strategy and Innovation, Head of Consulting Colliers-International (2015 — 2020)
• Managing Director Corporate Portfolio Analytics (2004 — 2015)
• Assistant Professor Harvard University Graduate School of Design (1989 — 1998)
• Strategy consultant and management educator Previous Positions (1980 — 1996)

Education

• PhD MBA MA Harvard University (1983 — 1990)
• BA UC Irvine (1978 — 1981)