Laura Martínez
Before joining IE University’s Global Master in Real Estate Development, I worked all in all 16 years between Bogotá, London and Madrid. Most of my experience in London for eight years. My professional experience has mostly been in the architectural design and execution of projects, but my time in the program has allowed me to gain a perspective on the other side of architecture: the financial side.
"IE University has a great community where we all help each other out and complement each other—relationships that will last a lifetime."
Laura’s architecture expertise has allowed her to move across the world, putting her skills to good use on an international scale. In Colombia, she worked for developers designing large-scale housing projects, and private clients doing single house design, all before making the move across the Atlantic to London. Once there, she worked for the design team on the construction side, coordinating projects between the design and on-site teams. Laura then brought her knowledge to Spain and began working for Estudio Lamela and, most recently, Aldea Proyectos with an international project focus.
Laura realized that while she had a lot of experience in the design side of architecture, she needed to understand the financial aspect to gain a better overall perspective, in turn helping propel her career further. She chose the Global Master in Real Estate Development as it perfectly complements her current experience and background while giving her a first-hand look at how profitability and costs work in architecture projects.
“The Global Master in Real Estate Development can be summed up in one word: complement. The program complements my background perfectly to set me up with the financial knowledge I need to open up my career path.”
After the program, she hopes to see herself as a project manager on the investment side of the sector, both acquiring assets and improving properties for tenants. As a woman in real estate, Laura is in the minority, but she hopes this is changing as women continue to succeed to the highest of standards and fulfill expectations that didn’t previously exist. She also predicts a shift towards sustainability in the future, which is currently one of the major challenges faced by cities.
While at IE University, Laura has been able to take advantage of amazing networking opportunities. The relationships she’s formed during her time so far are comparable to those of friends and family, and she sees these relationships continuing in the long term.
Without the program, and without the connections she’s been able to make along the way, Laura would not have been able to progress her career in the way in which she hopes to.
