After graduating
University of North Georgia (then called North Georgia College), Bob served six years in the
US Army, during which he earned a Masters degree in the evening from the
University of Southern California in systems management
. His first job was in sales with
Lendman Associates, an executive recruiter in NYC. In 1983, he was transferred here but was promptly asked to move elsewhere—that's when he said
enough is enough.
That led him to
Dick Bryant. Now with Lee & Associates, Dick was with the storied firm Portman Barry. "Real estate interested me," Bob says. "The concept of
consultative selling was part of what I did in the recruiting business." He worked under
Hugh Pafford and did a
string of office deals for mortgage companies during his first at-bats.
Bobo with his son
Will, also a Colliers broker. By 1991, a real estate career was firmly cemented. He and some Portman Barry peers (
Fred Sheets, Bob Ward, Russ Jobson, Mike Spears,
and
Bill Buist) joined what was then Cauble & Co; the firm eventually transformed into Colliers International and all six are
still there.
Bob was known as one of the few brokerage leaders who still
dirtied his hands in deals on a daily basis. That, surprisingly, is no more. "I was a
player coach," he says. (Like Pete Rose, without being crazy.) But as the firm grew, he needed to focus on the company full-time. So for the past year, Bob's been handling company-wide business development, strategy and day-to-day leadership.
Just because Bob isn't working on deals doesn't mean he can't dirty his hands: He's quite the
avid gardener; his terraced backyard—with garden rooms and a fish pond—is a
horticultural dream and
the product of 30 years of work. "That's the way I cool down, zone out, and relax," he says. One of the great things about a garden, he says, is that it's
unlike a business. In real estate, he works all day and has to wonder what he accomplished because the progress in the biz is always
incremental. "But when you work in a garden, whatever you're doing at the end of the day, you turn around and look at it, you see
exactly what you accomplished. That sort of immediate feedback nurses me."
