Several years ago, while speaking to a gathering of National Multifamily Housing Council (NMHC) members, then-secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro mentioned that he loved the Gables Residential apartment he was renting in the Washington, D.C., area and asked if anyone from Gables was present. As Gables president and CEO Sue Ansel walked up to the podium to give Castro a big hug, the crowd went wild.
“While the secretary may have thought the applause was directed toward him, the loud cheer was about the strong admiration that NMHC members had for Sue Ansel,” remembers Avanath Capital Management chairman and CEO Daryl Carter, one of many multifamily executives who has worked closely with Ansel at NMHC and considers her a friend and a confidante. “Sue is simply one of the most delightful people in the apartment world.”
In the multifamily industry, where people tend to stay and build long careers, professional relationships often become personal. Ansel, who has been in the industry for 36 years, is among a cadre of executives who have shaped NMHC—and, in turn, the industry. She helped organize the first multifamily technology real estate conference that morphed into OpTech, and, during her tenure as chairwoman in 2019, NMHC implemented the Women’s Event held just before the Apartment Strategies Conference and Annual Meeting. She has testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee and the U.S. Senate Banking Committee.
Ansel is justifiably proud of these achievements. But, she’s quick to add, “the best part of being an NMHC leader is the relationships formed with other NMHC members and industry leaders. I am so happy and thankful to call them friends.”
That feeling couldn’t be more mutual. It would be hard to find anyone in the multifamily industry who is more beloved.
“She’s like a big sister, even though we’re all the same age,” says Julie Smith, Bozzuto’s chief administrative officer, who has known Ansel for more than 30 years. “She’s a very kind, generous person, she’s super-smart, and she always knows the right question to ask—and when you’re with her, you have her full attention. People trust her and look up to her so much and just love being with her.”
Ansel’s warmth and confidence comes naturally, easily traced back to a stable, solid Midwestern upbringing. Her father, an accountant, worked for the same Fortune 500 company in Dundee, Illinois, for his entire career. He often engaged in long, thoughtful conversations with people he didn’t know well but was content to stay out of the spotlight with friends and family. Her mother, an elementary school teacher, was outgoing and curious, always asking people questions. Ansel’s friends thought she would be an excellent talk show host.
Ansel’s parents loved travel, and her mother’s teaching salary often paid for family vacations, igniting a wanderlust that Ansel has to this day. She reached her goal of visiting all 50 states by the time she was 50 and has spent time in numerous countries, with aspirations to experience many more. She revels in experiencing different cultures but is always happy to return home to Dallas. “I’ve never taken a trip overseas where I haven’t come back and said, I’m thankful to live where I live,” Ansel says. “We have so many blessings, and we’re so fortunate.”
Her parents also instilled confidence, telling her she could grow up to be anything she wanted to be. “That’s foundational,” she says. “They taught me the value of getting a good education, hard work, the importance of setting goals and going after them. They taught me to be respectful, thoughtful, and independent. All those things are what make me me today.”
A lifelong swimmer who loves science, Ansel wanted to be a marine biologist until her senior year in high school, when she took an economics class and fell in love. She went on to major in economics at DePauw University, a private liberal arts college in Greencastle, Indiana, that she now supports as a board of trustees member. At DePauw, she says, she learned “how to think and not what to think,” which has served her well throughout her career.
Getting a liberal arts education gave Ansel the breadth and depth to wind a circuitous path through Gables, working in or with every department except accounting. In 1987, she joined the computer operations team at Trammell Crow Residential just as the Dallas-based real estate development firm began moving away from paper-based operations. Trammell Crow spun Gables into a public company in 1993, and Ansel went on to serve as development director, vice president of ancillary services, vice president of operations, senior vice president, executive vice president, and chief operating officer. In 2012, she became president and CEO.
In 2015, real estate investment firm Clarion Partners acquired Gables from ING Group, which had owned it since 2005. Gables became a perpetual life vehicle, bringing stability following what Ansel describes as “a challenging recapitalization process.” Shepherding the firm through the transition and keeping its roughly 1,000 associates focused during a time of great uncertainty was one of the most challenging and rewarding periods of Ansel’s career.
“We had a year and a half where there were lots of conversations about what we were going to be,” says Ansel, who kept the team calm by constantly reassuring them that she would keep them informed and had their best interests at heart. “The team performed like champions, and this is, in large part, what led to the positive outcome of what the organization is today.”
Ansel serves as a managing partner of Clarion alongside her role as CEO of Gables, which owns and manages 28,000 apartments and 190,000 square feet of retail space across the country.
Under Ansel’s leadership, Gables has become one of the industry’s strongest-performing investment and management companies, “one of the best-in-class companies that my company and many others emulate,” says Carter, who sees her not as a competitor but as a collaborator. “During her tenure as an NMHC officer, including her tenure as chairwoman, Sue was highly effective in building consensus within the industry, as well as a highly effective advocate in government.”
Of Ansel’s many contributions, one of her most potent was laying the foundation and then building the structure for the NMHC Women’s Event. She started it organically, inviting the handful of other women who came to NMHC conferences in Dallas to her home for casual dinners around her dining table, where they could talk, laugh, and build trust. “Relationships were formed around that table,” Smith says.
Back then, Ansel says, “real estate industry events were a sea of blue blazers and khaki pants.” While that meant she rarely had to wait in line for the ladies’ room, “there was not good gender diversification.” She was well aware that many women weren’t as fortunate as she was to work for a number of men who believed in meritocracy, and she believes the industry still has work to do when it comes to giving women an even playing field. “We need to grow really smart, talented associates of all different demographics and gender diversity to be able to push the industry forward. We need creative, thoughtful leaders with different experiences to lead us into the future, and I think women can certainly do that.”
While she’s revered as a great convener, Ansel also has a competitive streak that’s not always apparent under her calm demeanor. Running triathlons is her safe space, where she can let her competitive juices flow freely. She enjoys the personal challenge of improving her own results and finishing ahead of the pack in her age group. “I like the challenge of reaching or exceeding the goal,” she says. “A lot of goals in life are harder to measure.”
