Nathan Kimpel, Head of Technology – Multifamily, Cushman & Wakefield
Nathan Kimpel is the Head of Technology – Multifamily at Cushman & Wakefield. He leads a product management team, and provides leadership strategy, definition, roadmap and go-to-market approach for Cushman & Wakefield Multifamily business line. Nathan has two decades of experience in successfully delivering information systems and digital technology. He is a people-first technology leader with diverse digital transformation and cyber security expertise. Nathan Kimpel shared his valuable thoughts and expert insights for the 2025 edition of CIOReview.
Experience that Influenced Career Journey
I always thought I would be a high school physics teacher; that was the plan. Then a friend asked me to help swap out 8088s in the campus computer lab and keep the place running. I was hooked. That detour turned into decades of hands-on work in PC tech, systems, and network admin, then progressively broader leadership across regions and industries. I moved from Michigan to Baton Rouge to Sacramento and eventually to Missouri, building a career and a life with my wife of 32 years and our three kids.
Along the way, I learned two lessons that shape everything I do. First, action creates motivation, not the other way around. If you move especially when you do not feel like it, you generate momentum and, often, a little luck. Second, assume positive intent. People come with different experiences and lenses; even when we disagree sometimes strongly, there is usually a good reason behind the viewpoint. Put those together and you get my operating system: generate luck through motion, listen hard, and try to understand what you might be missing. That is what ultimately led me to Cushman & Wakefield and the privilege of leading in multifamily—complex, human, and better when you value the team in front of you.
Leading the Digital Real Estate Platforms
“Be the third-base coach.” In high school, my gym teacher loved to give assignments like that. Third-base coach, not third base. Your job is to wave people home so they can score, watch the outfielder, read the throw, and know when to send and when to hold. That is leadership for digital platforms. The hitter, the runner, the throw, those are your product managers, engineers, operators, and partners.
Multifamily is a web of platforms, properties, and people; the tech is only as good as the trust. If I keep my eyes up, communicate early, and wave the team home at the right time, we score consistently, no matter the industry 
My role is to set the field, clarify the play, remove blockers, and give a clear signal at the right moment. That means crisp guardrails, repeatable processes, and empowerment at the edge. It means tight vendor governance, strong data and integration standards, and a bias to ship value in small increments. It also means sharing credit and absorbing blame. Multifamily is a web of platforms, properties, and people; the tech is only as good as the trust. If I keep my eyes up, communicate early, and wave the team home at the right time, we score consistently, no matter the industry.
Adapting to Shifting Market Forces
A few principles guides me to ensure that the long-term technology strategy remains agile enough to adapt to shifting market forces and evolving business priorities in real estate. First, always keep up, read widely, network, and learn from other leaders. Strategy must stay agile within clear guardrails: security by design, clean data standards, API-first integration, and disciplined vendor governance. Second, meet every business priority with a solution mindset, rarely a hard “no more often “yes… this is the way.”
The goal is to be a true advisor who is collaborating, guiding, and, when appropriate, following. There may be 8 billion people, but only so many working styles, call it sixteen archetypes. Learn how each person decides and communicates, meet them where they are, and the team can move together through shifting markets and priorities.
State of Cybersecurity and its Future
I am fortunate to work with exceptional security leaders. What keeps me focused is the reality that attackers now have access to the same class of tools as defenders. AI makes sophisticated attacks faster, cheaper, and more convincing. Phishing, voice cloning, and targeted social engineering are being packaged as services. In multifamily, that intersects with something very physical: properties, residents, vendors, and building systems. I expect a rise in blended attacks; someone tailgates into a site office, plugs in a device, impersonates a vendor, or leverages a weak integration between access control, cameras, and back-office systems.
The line between “cyber” and “physical” will blur into simply “security.” Our answer is holistic: identity-centric zero trust, least-privilege access, strong MFA, and segmentation across IT and OT; rigorous vendor risk and third party access controls; and continuous training that is relevant to onsite teams, not just corporate staff. We pair tabletop exercises that include facilities and operations with detection and response that can dispatch both IT and physical security. The mission is resilience, protect people first, and then data and operations, and practice like the one we play.
Advice for the Technology Leaders
If I could share one piece of advice with enterprise technology leaders on driving innovation and leading with impact, it would be to reframe and take the long view. Time plus perspective equal’s gratitude and better decisions. Early in my career, when building my first data center, I had some fierce arguments. I cannot recall a single specific thing today. If I had asked, “Will this matter in 10–15 years?” I would have saved energy for what truly moves the needle.
My dad once said something that stuck. I had a Mustang I loved; the brakes failed, and I had exactly $100 in my account. I was frustrated. He asked, “Why can’t you be happy you have the $100 to fix the car?” That is reframing. In leadership, it translates to curiosity over ego, learning over defensiveness, and motion over perfection. Do the small things today, ship the next slice, listen twice as much as you speak, and wave your people home so they can score. Humility is not soft; it is a force multiplier. Say, “I don’t know” when you do not, ask for help, and give away the credit. Innovation shows up when teams feel safe to try, to learn, and to run.