Morgane Lejeune, Senior Business Developer Manager at BePark, has been appointed as chair of ULI Belgium Young Leaders Group. Morgane succeeded Nicolas Deremince and started her term on the 1 July 2020 and will serve on a voluntary basis for the next two years.

Morgane joined ULI Belgium about three years ago when she was working at CBRE in the advisory and transaction services department. She is now working on creating the best mobility experience for this generation and the next one.

Congratulations on being elected chairman of the ULI Belgium Young Leaders. Why are you taking on this position and what do you hope to achieve?

Thank you. I am really thrilled with this responsibility. I joined the ULI Young Leaders about three years ago as I was impressed by the quality of the networking events. I am convinced ULI is a real platform where professionals can connect and share their knowledge. I hope I will be able to connect those professionals even more and create a real collective intelligence between the different actors.

What role does ULI play in helping members understand and embrace this accelerated pace of change?

I think of ULI as the “big tent” for the real estate industry, where you have experts and practitioners from a very, very broad range of functions and disciplines. ULI has already taken some substantial steps in forming two new product councils focused on technology, in addition to producing seminars, symposiums, broadcasts, and things like that. Again, I think ULI is trying to be a place where the people and the expertise and the conversations can happen related to every aspect of real estate. That’s the role of ULI.

 Is there a topic that you feel particularly passionate about?

Of course, mobility is really important to me. I am working on it every day and I am convinced that the urban landscape has to be evolved in this big challenge. The public sector won’t be able to change mobility in city centres on its own. That’s why private actors have to work on it as well and integrate mobility into new projects. If the public and private sector are able to work together, I am convinced that the urban landscape will answer to the new generation challenges.

Is there anything you would like to add?

We are currently in a period where our lifestyles (working, having fun, living in the city) have been profoundly disrupted in recent months, revealing dysfunctions and inequalities in the use of the territory and the way we consume the city. I am deeply convinced that it is together that we will be able to rectify the situation and offer solutions for housing and public spaces that are more appropriate to the different needs of the urban population. The real estate sector and the mobility services sector, which are closely linked, play a key role. We need to put collective intelligence at the heart of our commitment – through information sharing, collaborations and experience sharing.ULI is this platform. This is its DNA: Share – Connect – Learn and we hope to expand our network even if our primary objective is not the number of members, but to bring together young talents, the future leaders of our industry.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the young professionals who joined me in this new ULI adventure, and who accepted our invitation to become a member of the Steering committee of ULI Belgium Young Leaders. All of them come from leading companies in the sector. I see a bright future for our group.