The University of Miami’s School of Architecture is proud to acknowledge and celebrate the work of the MRED+U Program’s Founding Director, Dr. Charles Bohl, who served as Chair of the ULI Southeast Florida / Caribbean District Council (DC) for the past two years. Building on his predecessor’s work, and working closely with ULI Executive Director Julie Medley, Chuck led members in reshaping ULI’s mission in South Florida and the Caribbean, focusing on membership engagement, critical public policy issues for South Florida, and leadership development.
During Chuck’s two-year term, the DC experienced over a 30% jump in membership, surpassing the 1,000-membership level, with sponsorship and registration revenues surpassing years past at a consistent pace. Having helped launch the ULI Vision Awards in 2006 and chaired the jury multiple times, Chuck made the growth and success of the Awards a priority. During his term, the DC marked the 10th anniversary of the awards by assembling the previous Lifetime Achievement Award (LFA) recipients - including Chuck Cobb, Jorge Perez, the Graham family and the Whitman-Lazenby family - who celebrated Steve Owens as the 2016 LFA recipient and Goldman Properties’ Wynwood Walls as the Project of the Year. The extraordinary leaders and exemplary projects recognized at the Vision Awards have firmly established this as a premier annual event for the region, and distinguish South Florida globally as a dynamic community where architecture, real estate, urban design and the arts are flourishing.
Chuck led the DC in identifying the top three public policy areas for South Florida and created a Vice Chair for Public Policy to help lead and coordinate ULI’s policy initiatives and partnerships involving Affordable Housing, Mobility and Resiliency. ULI’s commitment to these policy areas brought major national and international speakers and researchers to South Florida for timely programs and high-level forums, providing real world examples to inform local decisions in each of these policy areas.
Chuck also worked to elevate South Florida’s global connectivity through the integration of international topics and speakers in DC programs, and collaborated with ULI Mexico on two successful Latin America Conferences. To bolster the Caribbean region of the DC, Chuck traveled to Puerto Rico and helped forge a partnership with the Builders Association that brought nearly a hundred new members to the DC, and led to a ULI LATAM Hospitality conference to be held in Puerto Rico this October.
Chuck’s top priority during his term was leadership development. He enlisted young leaders to spearhead new initiatives, recruited new leadership talent to join the advisory board, and advanced the Women’s Leadership Initiative, including a grant that created a new program on Art & Real Estate. To reach a broader base and advance leadership development throughout the region going forward, Chuck launched a Leadership Institute (LI) open to both members and non-members. Chuck appointed Anthony Graziano as the Vice Chair of the initiative, who helped secure a ULI grant and spearheaded the LI Committee.
UM and the School of Architecture are proud of Chuck’s accomplishments during his two-year term as ULI Chair and congratulate him on his appointment as Governance Chair of the ULI District Council for the next two years. Chuck is quick to emphasize that ULI is a member-led organization, and he thanks all of the ULI members who served on the advisory board, committees and programs during his term to make these and many other initiatives so successful and enjoyable over the past two years. He asks the South Florida community to welcome Greg West, of ZOM, as ULI's incoming Chair, Tom Roth, of Grass River Properties, as the new incoming Chair for Mission Advancement, and to continue to support ULI's Executive Director Julie Medley and her excellent staff as they lead the ULI Southeast Florida / Caribbean District Council in exciting new directions in the years ahead.
