As featured in “Commercial Property Executive”
Gabriel Frank, Commercial Property Executive, 19 March, 2026
RREAF Holdings’ COO, Jeff Holzmann, is featured in Commercial Property Executive, where he highlights the firm’s innovative approach to “reverse mentoring” and the importance of empowering younger team members to challenge leadership. Drawing from aviation principles, Holzmann explains how RREAF’s “no jeopardy” culture encourages open dialogue, sharper decision-making and stronger adoption of modern technology and marketing strategies.
Read more below or explore the full article on Commercial Property Executive to see how this approach is reshaping company culture and performance across the industry.
RREAF Holdings, a Dallas-based multifamily and hospitality investment firm, also has a similar, less formal, albeit equally organized reverse mentoring program. The company’s strategy takes root in the aviation industry’s concept of crew resource management, which accounts for leadership’s capacity for human error and its oftentimes fatal consequences.
“It’s not a life-and-death situation for us, but we borrow from that intellectual body work,” said Jeff Holzmann, the company’s COO. An airline pilot himself, Holzmann recognizes the importance of empowering younger employees who may possess fresher, more diverse viewpoints to speak up. “We’ve seen situations where the first officer knew that the plane would crash, and wouldn’t dare say anything because the captain was the captain.”
To avoid these more metaphorical crashes, RREAF makes it a point to empower its younger team members to talk at formal debriefing meetings following every transaction, aptly called ‘no jeopardy events.’
“This is very unusual, but you will have situations where somebody in their mid-20s is speaking up against their boss or their boss’ boss, saying they don’t think it was handled correctly,” Holzmann observed. “Without a program like this, would an asset manager, or your most junior analyst dare say to your CEO, (that) I think you’re wrong to sell a property at that price?”
We appreciate and thank Commercial Property Executive, especially Gabriel Frank, for covering Jeff’s thoughts on mentoring in the CRE industry. To read the full article, please visit Commercial Property Executive.
