|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Since joining Cohen & Steers—an investment management company that focuses on listed real assets and alternative income—in 2007, Executive Vice President and General Counsel Frank Poli has enjoyed an unusually broad array of responsibilities.
“I get involved in just about everything,” he says.
He leads the company’s legal strategy, ensures the integrity of the company’s business practices, serves as a member of the firm’s executive committee, and acts as senior legal advisor to CEO Joseph Harvey and the board of directors. He’s also the lead director of the company’s offshore funds, president of the firm’s broker-dealer, and a member of the investment risk committee. Finally, he ensures that Cohen & Steers maintains the proper compliance and regulatory protocols as a global organization and manages the company’s insurance programs.
The wide-reaching perspective Poli has gained from his array of responsibilities has shaped how he approaches leadership and culture at the firm. The executive committee oversees just about every aspect of the firm. As a longstanding member, he has helped cultivate flexibility and balance among management and workers alike.
If you worked on Wall Street in the 1980s or 1990s, you were expected to spend all of your time in the office, making money for the firm, and if you wanted to pursue a charitable activity, that was on your own time. But that posture has changed dramatically in response to today’s workforce that requires more personal and purposeful rewards from its jobs.
As an example, he points to a recent volunteer opportunity where Cohen & Steers partnered with the Pajama Program. The nonprofit promotes equitable access to healthy sleep for children by providing pajamas and books for bedtime stories to children in shelters, transitional housing, and foster care.
“Employees gathered in the company’s cafeteria to assemble and pack two hundred sets of pajamas and books,” he says. “The floor with the highest participation rate was rewarded with Krispy Kreme doughnuts and bagels the following morning. The event was a tremendous success because the Pajama Program is a great cause that resonated with all employees regardless of department, age, or gender.”
Cohen & Steers also supports flexibility in its day-to-day operations when necessary. “All employees have the tools and equipment to work effectively from home,” he says. “So instead of taking off a half day from work for a visit to the dentist, pick a child up from school, or wait for a delivery, staff members can continue to work remotely and be productive during that window.”
This flexibility began with the COVID-19 pandemic, which spurred rapid organizational change. “The COVID-19 pandemic forced a lot of firms, including us, to rethink their approach to working,” Poli says. “And in its own way, provided a silver lining; our employees quickly adapted to working and collaborating remotely to keep the business running smoothly.”
Culture isn’t the only thing that’s changing. The asset management industry is too. Technology is playing a bigger role, with artificial intelligence growing in importance as a new tool for efficiency and productivity. At the same time, products for institutional and retail investors are converging, and interest rates have shifted dramatically in the last few years.
“There’s been a monumental shift from a zero-interest rate environment to higher-than-normal rates, leading to changes in investor sentiment,” Poli says. “That’s why it’s so important to continually adapt and develop new investment strategies and solutions for investor portfolios.”
But perhaps the most profound shift is taking place at the firm’s highest levels. Poli has witnessed—and participated in—the generational leadership succession at Cohen & Steers.
“Marty Cohen and Bob Steers founded the firm in 1986 as one of the first investment advisors dedicated to real estate securities,” Poli says. “Marty became chairman in 2016, and Bob assumed the role of executive chairman in 2022. For years, we’ve been evolving from a founder-led company to one helmed by a mixture of homegrown talent and outside hires. That’s prompted us to have healthy and transparent conversations about succession planning, which can be an elephant in the room at many companies.”
That forward-looking mindset informs how Poli cultivates talent across the firm. Poli is a strong proponent of mentorship. Though Cohen & Steers has a structured mentorship program, Poli believes mentoring also happens in everyday interactions.
“When you think about it,” he says, “everyone in the company—except for recent graduates—acts as a mentor to some degree. And especially for tenured or senior staff, all eyes are on you: Every action, every statement is observed. In my experience, the best mentors lead by example and are player-coaches. They roll their sleeves up, sit side-by-side with their coworkers, and get directly involved in the actual work, not just issue orders from the sidelines.”
One of Poli’s mantras is “continuous improvement,” and his department supports that sentiment in several ways. It participates in the Practising Law Institute, a New York–based nonprofit learning organization dedicated to keeping attorneys and other professionals at the forefront of knowledge and experience. Several of the firm’s paralegals attend law school at night, as Poli once did. And in addition to on-the-job training, Cohen & Steers offers the opportunity to attend seminars, conferences, webinars, and other avenues of improvement.
“I get involved in just about everything.”
Frank Poli
That spirit of learning and connection also drives some of the firm’s employee-led initiatives. Poli is involved in several of these initiatives, including the women’s exchange and volunteer committee. The participation and profile of employee resource groups within the firm have continued to grow and now represent a fundamental part of the culture at Cohen & Steers.
“The women’s exchange came together a few years ago,” Poli explains. “It provides an inclusive forum for women at the firm to share ideas and experiences, advocate for one another, and encourage personal, career, and leadership development. The women’s exchange is community focused as well. For example, in 2024 they hosted a Miles Challenge, which encouraged employees to donate to Living Beyond Breast Cancer and wear pink in support of LBBC guest speakers.”
Meanwhile, the volunteer committee organizes donation drives and fundraisers for local nonprofits. Some recipients include Animal Cares Centers of New York, Volunteers of America–Greater New York‘s Operation Backpack (which provides backpacks and grade-specific school supplies to local children living in homeless shelters), and Crossroads Community Services NYC.
“Activities like these are important, both personally and professionally. They provide opportunities for personal growth and well-being as well as interactions with new colleagues in the firm. Along with mentorship, a collaborative environment, and our commitment to continuous improvement, we are building a stronger workplace culture,” Poli says.
His own connection to the firm runs deep. “I was appointed to the executive committee the day I started at Cohen & Steers,” Poli recalls. “I realized that I was in a position to help shape the future of the company as well as the lives of the people in it. Since then, I’ve focused on contributing as both a leader and member of the firm’s community and have seen the results of those efforts. It is extremely rewarding.”
