Watch: Lessons in Leadership with Matt Kelly

This month, for our Lessons in Leadership session, the CEO of JBG Smith, Matt Kelly, sat down with Richard Bynum ('13), PNC's President for Greater Washington & Virginia. The two discussed how to grow a successful workplace culture, humorous aspects of family road-trips, the power of small acts of kindness, and the importance of learning from failures in order to succeed.

In partnership with PNC, Lessons in Leadership brings together vital leaders in our community to network with peers, tell the stories that shaped them as leaders, and to share insights into the successes inherent in leading with greater purpose, gratitude, integrity, and courage.

Matt shared his inspiring story about coming of age as a leader in the real-estate industry in the aughts, when many companies were experiencing high turnover among younger managers due to a lack of market growth. “JBG was always different, because JBG shared everything, and made opportunities like that. I’m relatively younger, and one of the things we’ve always tried to do, is really give people lots of responsibility, and always make sure we have growth opportunities,” said Matt Kelly.

JBG Smith is best known to most of us as the developer for the new Amazon headquarters coming to National Landing in Arlington. But are you aware of the backstory of how Matt and his team combined tenaciousness, creativity, and trust to form the new vision that made it possible? Don’t miss the full recording on Youtube, and listen in as Matt elaborates on strategies for affordable housing, talks about being kidded for “not having the New York swagger thing down,” and tells the real story behind how Amazon chose JBG Smith.

Connect with us for the next Lessons in Leadership session; members of Leadership Greater Washington gain access to all of our events, gatherings and exchanges.