ULI Trustee Profile

I am: Joe Gyourko, the Martin Bucksbaum Professor of real estate and finance at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and director of the Zell/Lurie Real Estate Center at Wharton.

ULI Member since: 1988.

Where I live: Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, just outside of Philadelphia.

Favorite room in my home: The patio—if that qualifies as a room—because the grill is there. That is the only type of cooking I like to do in my favorite seasons—spring and summer.

Favorite way to spend time with my family: At Phillies’ baseball games and at the beach on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

How I unwind: Reading history, cycling, and playing with my kids.

What makes me laugh: My children, mostly.

What makes me angry: Philadelphia politics. You have to live here to believe it.

Last book I read: Alexander Hamilton, by Ron Chernow.

Persons I admire most: Great teachers. They really have an impact on peoples’ lives.

Persons I rely on most: My wife, Sally Fullam, and my Wharton colleague, Anita Summers.

First (salaried) job: As an assistant professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. I never left.

What I do for a living now: Teaching and research.

Project I’m working on now: A national survey and analysis of residential land use controls and building regulations, and how they have influenced house prices and the amount of development.

Project that makes me proudest: Expanding the Zell/Lurie Real Estate Center and the real estate program at Wharton over the last five years that I have been program director.

Professional goal yet to achieve: To become one of Wharton’s outstanding teachers.

Why I would tell someone to join ULI: For the same reason I provide to my students each year. You need to find an organization and an environment in which you can engage in lifelong learning. Otherwise, you will fall behind in a world that continues to change at a rapid pace. ULI is that organization and that place.