Mark Gallman

2021 | Foundation Philanthropic Leadership Award

Mark A. Gallman, SMA, SMT, LEED GA received the 2021 BOMA Georgia Foundation Philanthropic Leadership Award. The award was created to recognize leadership in supporting real estate education and research through the BOMA Georgia Foundation. Mark retired in September 2020 after a career of more than 20 years in commercial real estate.

“This year’s award recipient enthusiastically and wholeheartedly gave his support to the BOMA Georgia Foundation from it beginning in 2014,” said Melody Frcek, 2021 BOMA Georgia Foundation Board of Trustees Chair. “Mark served as a member of the BOMA Georgia board in 2013 when the idea of creating a foundation emerged and he was an outspoken advocate for creating a foundation that would help real estate professionals gain access to the industry education they needed. Mark was also one of the first donors to the BOMA Georgia Foundation and has made a personal donation to the foundation every year since it was created in 2014. Even now as he enjoys retirement, he continues to cheerfully give as a founding member of the BOMA Georgia Foundation Leadership Society, pledging to give annually to the BOMA Georgia Foundation as an Emerald member. His passion for education and increasing access to industry education is an inspiration to us all.”

Mark joined BOMA Georgia in 2006 as a BOMA Technical Organization member, a category of membership created specifically for building engineers. Mark served as chair of the BTO Council in 2011; chair of the Editorial Board in 2015; vice chair of the Government Affairs Committee in 2017; and chair of the Government Affairs Committee in 2018 and 2019. He served as a member of the BOMA Georgia Board of Directors from 2012 to 2013.

Mark was also an active member of several other committees from 2006 to 2020 including the BOMA Technical Organization, High Performance Building Summit Task Force, Foundation Fundraising Task Force, Building Engineering Development Task Force, and Professional Development Council.

Mark also served as a local TOBY judge and as a member of BOMA Georgia’s BOMA 2017 Southern Region Conference Task Force.

Additionally, Mark served as an instructor for several BOMA Georgia courses, including Building Engineering 101, Fundamentals of Property Management, and several one-time seminars and workshops. He also served as an instructor for several courses developed by the Building Owners and Managers Institute International related to the SMT and SMA designation programs. Mark continued to teach several of these courses during his retirement.

He also represented BOMA Georgia as a member of the State of Georgia’s Elevator Advisory Board for several years. The board was created to advance the safety of the citizens of Georgia in all areas as it relates to the general the use of elevators, escalators, moving walks and other elevator related equipment regulated by the Official Code of Georgia Annotated and the Georgia Rules and Regulations; to vote on all variance requests; and to make recommendations to the Office of Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner.

Mark was also appointed to represent BOMA Georgia on the Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Sustainability Working Group.

In 2011, Mark received the BOMA Atlanta Engineer of the Year Award. He also received the 2015 BOMA Georgia President’s Award and the 2019 Committee Chair of the Year Award.

Mark started his career in commercial real estate after working as a machinist for more than 20 years at companies such as Lockheed Martin, American Standard, Amoco, and Siemens. As a machinist, he acquired many trade skills, including welding; tool and die making; CNC machining; automation and controls; and fluid power technology.

Mark started his career in commercial real estate in November 2001, joining Childress Klein Properties as a Maintenance Mechanic Level II. While at Childress Klein Properties, Mark was part of the management and operations team that won the 2003-2004 BOMA Atlanta TOBY Award in the 100,000 to 249,999 Square Feet Category for the Dupree Building.

In February 2005, Mark joined the staff of Trammel Crow Company, where he worked as a Lead Operating Engineer through January 2007. He was recruited by Trammell Crow to manage operations for Behringer Harvard’s first Atlanta project, Ashford Perimeter, a 288,000 square feet, Class A multi-tenant office building in Atlanta.

From January 2007 to May 2009, Mark worked for Pope and Land Enterprises as an Area Chief Engineer, where he was directly responsible for engineering and maintenance for three main properties: City View, Cumberland Center 1, and Cumberland Center 4. He was also responsible for capital improvements oversight and project management of $5 million for Cumberland Center 1.

Mark then joined the staff of Tishman Speyer Company as a Chief Engineer in May 2009, where he remained until September 2012, where he was primarily responsible for Alliance Center, a 1,044,000 square feet, Class A office complex in Atlanta. There, he maintained LEED Gold Certification for Two Alliance Center and maintained ENERGY STAR certifications for both One Alliance Center and Two Alliance Center.

Mark then joined Highwoods Properties in September 2012 as Regional Maintenance Manager, where he worked until retiring in September 2020. At Highwoods Properties, he was responsible for oversight of maintenance teams for 2.9 million square feet of Class A commercial high-rise and mid-rise office assets in metropolitan Atlanta’s submarkets of Buckhead and Cumberland. Mark had primary responsibility for managing an engineering staff of 14 including, three chief engineers and their teams and he provided engineering services to six property managers for seven properties.

Mark graduated from Chattahoochee Technical College, earning an Air Conditioning Technology Diploma. He earned the Systems Maintenance Technician (SMT) and Systems Maintenance Administrator (SMA) designations from the Building Owners and Managers Institute International. He earned the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Green Associate (LEED GA) from the U.S. Green Building Council. And he was one of the inaugural graduates of the BOMA Atlanta/Chattahoochee Technical College’s Commercial HVAC Certificate Program.