Aaron Kazam '15 has been named an International Council of Shopping Centers Foundation Grossman Graduate Scholar. The award includes a scholarship as well as a grant for travel expenses to attend ICSC RECon, the global convention for the shopping center industry, which will take place in Las Vegas in May.
Kazam, who is a co-president of the school’s Real Estate Association for 2014-15, worked as an architect at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and as a project manager at Artimus prior to entering Columbia Business School. He earned his bachelor of architecture from Cornell University.
"My goal is to innovate by bringing together financial expertise, operating efficiency, and architectural design sensibility," Kazam explained. "In particular, there is immense potential for innovation in the retail real estate industry as our world is being reshaped by technology, consumer trends, and sustainability."
The ICSC Foundation graduate scholarship program was created to encourage extraordinary students to select retail real estate as their career path. The scholarship is named after the late Charles Grossman '68, who chaired the foundation from 2006 to 2007.