Beyond The Bio: 16 Questions With WiredScore North America Senior Director Tom Redmayne

This series profiles men and women in commercial real estate who have profoundly transformed our neighborhoods and reshaped our cities, businesses and lifestyles.

Hollywood may love Eddie Redmayne, but the Redmayne star in commercial real estate is the actor’s brother, WiredScore North America Senior Director Tom Redmayne. 

The U.K.-born PropTech leader got his CRE start at Cushman & Wakefield in London, working on the firm’s global technology team. After four years with C&W, Redmayne moved over to WiredScore after the company expanded to London in 2015. 

Redmayne helped build the connectivity certification platform’s European business and worked his way up to the role of senior director of WiredScore’s U.K. and Ireland offices, landing partnerships with more than 180 landlords including Blackstone, Hines, Tishman Speyer and Nuveen. He moved stateside in 2019 to replicate his European success, this time as the senior director for North America.

Bisnow: What is your favorite part of your job?

Redmayne: I love being surrounded by smart, motivated people. At WiredScore, we have some brilliant minds from a myriad of backgrounds including banking, telecom, consultancy, technology and, of course, real estate. This creates an environment where you are constantly being challenged and learning new things, which really inspires me. 

Bisnow: What is the worst job you ever had?

Redmayne: When I was 18 and earning money to go traveling, I worked as a waiter for a catering company. At one event, the guests decided to see how many champagne glasses they could stack on the tray I was carrying until it collapsed! 

Bisnow: If you weren’t in commercial real estate, what would you do?

Redmayne: I would be a travel writer. Getting to explore the world and write about it would be the ultimate luxury!

Bisnow: What deal are you proudest of?

Redmayne: Being named the U.K. property industry’s Rising Star and Young Personality of the Year was something that meant a lot. It felt like the industry was really validating the risk I took to leave a traditional real estate job to try and create a marketplace for an entirely new product.

Bisnow: What deal do you consider to be your biggest failure?

Redmayne: Realizing I was not going to be a professional soccer player at a young age was pretty devastating. I had my heart set on it until my father took me to the park, pointed at the games going on and said, “I can see 20 kids that are already better than you will ever be, so work hard in school!” In retrospect, it was great advice!

Bisnow: What is your biggest pet peeve?

Redmayne: Ruinous empathy. It is so easy to tell people what they want to hear because you don't want to hurt their feelings. However, that’s unhelpful as they have no way of understanding what they're doing wrong or how to improve. Instead, I would always recommend being honest and upfront in a way that’s not rude or demoralizing. I have had great experiences using radical candor to help people internalize feedback and improve.   

Bisnow: What is your greatest extravagance?

Redmayne: I can never have enough unique experiences. In recent years, climbing Kilimanjaro with my wife was a real highlight and definitely the hardest thing I've ever done!

Bisnow: What motivates you?

Redmayne: I live in constant fear of one day finding myself with a narrow skill set only suited for one job that I don't love. The moment I become too comfortable in a role, I try and find new ways to challenge myself. Recently I did this by spending a year building a new side of our business into the residential space as well as relocating to New York to bring my European experience into the U.S. business. Starting from a different perspective helps keep me motivated and thinking differently about my work.

Bisnow: What advice do you wish you got when you started in CRE?

Redmayne: Never accept the status quo. At the start of my career, I spent too long accepting that things I considered inefficient were right. It took me a while, but I began to realize that constantly questioning why things work the way they do allows you to spot opportunities for growth and positive change.

Bisnow: What is the biggest risk you have ever taken?

Redmayne: Leaving a global, 50,000-person business like C&W to join one other person in building the WiredScore European business four years ago was a big risk. Going to buy laptops and find an office on day one certainly drove home the scale of the task quickly! I take it as a compliment that former colleagues now say it was “an obvious choice,” as that was not their take at the time!

Bisnow: What keeps you up at night?

Redmayne: Working with our teams across Europe and the U.S. means that someone is always working. If I make the mistake of checking my phone at night, there is always something to do!

Bisnow: What is your favorite place to visit?

Redmayne: I will always feel a nostalgic connection to the South of France. I spent all my holidays there as a child and my family still has a home there. It is a world away from city life and is super relaxing!

Bisnow: Outside of work, what are you most passionate about?

Redmayne: Travel. My wife and I are fascinated by people and cultures and love to spend our free time exploring and learning about different places all over the world. Moving from the U.K. to the U.S., it is easy to assume that the culture will be similar due to the language. What I've learned however, is that to be able to thrive in the U.S., it is important to appreciate and understand the nuances and idiosyncrasies of the culture first.

Bisnow: What CRE trend do you think will have the most impact over the next few years?

Redmayne: I think that technology will very soon cause a polarization in the market between buildings that can provide resilient and redundant technology experiences that tenants increasingly require and ones that don’t. Buildings are increasingly becoming computers with roofs and the developers, building owners and landlords we work with are recognizing the potential upside of focusing on future-proofing their building technology — and the consequential downsides, one being the risk of obsolescence, if they do not.

Bisnow: What would people be surprised to learn about you?

Redmayne: I'm colorblind, which slightly reduces my enjoyment of the fall colors upstate! 

Bisnow: What do you want your legacy to be?

Redmayne: I want to change the way people think about technology and real estate. I believe that in years to come, the quality of a building's digital infrastructure will have an impact on investment value, and I want to be at the forefront of driving that conversation to help people enhance their assets and embrace our ever-changing reality.