Jen Cookke

F.H. French CEO

Discover Jen Cookke: A dynamic real estate visionary with a rich background spanning corporate leadership and entrepreneurial success. Jen spent the first part of her career working for corporate offices of two Fortune 500 headquarters in executive leadership and went on to transition to a career in entrepreneurship, building a portfolio of companies and commercial real estate investments throughout New England.

Read more to learn of Jen's expertise in the industry.

JEN COOKKE

BIO

Over 25 years in the market

Jen Cookke is an accomplished real estate professional with over 25 years of experience in corporate real estate, real estate development and entrepreneurship. She has a broad-based background within the industry including asset and portfolio management, market research, capital markets, financial and development analysis. Jennifer began her career directing the corporate real estate operations for Fortune 500 companies. In 2001 she left corporate America to become a real estate entrepreneur and has developed and owns a significant portfolio of privately held commercial real estate. Her firm, F.H. French Company is a full-service real estate firm offering services including the acquisition and development of commercial properties, asset management, commercial brokerage, consulting, construction management and valuation services.

Jen received her B.S from Boston University, an MBA and an MS in Real Estate from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is a Doctoral Candidate at Vanderbilt University. Jen is a member of the faculty of MIT’s Graduate Sloan School of business and works as an expert witness, Corporate Board of Trustee and contributor to national publications. She contributes regularly to national publications such as CNN, Wall Street Journal, and Forbes.
Jen’s academic interest and research is focused in the areas of critical thinking pedagogies, emerging real estate ventures, taxation structuring and P3 work in public and private partnerships.

JEN COOKKE

HIGHER EDUCATION EXPERIENCE

Faculty Member, Baston School of Business

Citadel College, Charleston, SC

Instructed course in Real Estate Development, Finance, and Investment, enhancing expertise in strategic property and financial analysis.

Faculty Member, Graduate Center for Real Estate

MIT-Cambridge, MA

Graduate courses in Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Real Estate Products and Real Estate Development; Real Estate Taxation and Leadership

Thesis advisor
Academic advisor
Interim Director of Career Services
Admission Committee Member
Working Group with Dean on Academic Curriculum Review

Adjunct Faculty, School of Management

Bryant University-Smithfield, RI

Courses in Organizational Learning, Entrepreneurship and Women in Business

Guest Lecturer

Providence College
Jacksonville University

JEN COOKKE

Professional Experience

FH French Co. Inc | CEO and Founder
Lincoln, RI

Created a full service real estate company with development, brokerage, facility management and consulting division
Define overall strategy of operation and profitability of 15 associated entities
Built high performance culture focused on innovation, accountability and execution
Undertook over $500 million in acquisition and development and manage more than 3 million of real estate projects
Direct acquisitions, dispositions, ground up development, facility management, location and feasibility analysis, negotiations of municipal economic incentives
Negotiate leasing activity for diverse portfolio wide occupancy of 94%
Short and long term asset and strategy management with definitive milestones and investment measurement

Liberty Mutual | Vice President of Corporate Real Estate Services
Boston, MA

Introduced and implemented formalized training and development program for mid-level employees for internal pipeline of management.
Responsible for providing strategy and operational services to Liberty Mutual global business entities in all areas of real estate and corporate services.
Portfolio included over 6 million of corporate owned and leased real estate
Envisioned and implemented first corporate mentorship and environmental sustainability program

Starwood Hotel Corporation | Director of New Business Development
Boston, MA

Performed all financial analysis, feasibility studies, due diligence for site selection
Worked directly for Executive Committee on developing growth and market strategies.
Created Data Analytics criteria for executive level review process.