“The Glick Company really does focus on its employees and promoting from within, continuing to challenge team members to do the best they can and finding opportunities to help us grow.”

Certainly no one knows this better than Alex Freeman. He began his Glick career as an intern and now, after four years in the marketing department, is moving into his next role as property management operations manager.

“It’s exciting to have a new group to work with,” Freeman said. “I enjoy building my knowledge base and getting to learn more about the Glick Company as a whole, and this role allows for that.”

As a property management operations manager, Freeman is responsible for assisting the director of property management operations, ensuring properties are properly operating in accordance with Glick Company standards. He manages and helps maximize the effectiveness of information flow, management, business processes and organizational planning.

“I’ll be helping develop new initiatives and programs, reviewing them and seeing if they are a viable option for Glick,” he said. “I’m looking forward to collaborating with others and getting a new perspective on this company and all it does.”

It’s a company Freeman began his relationship with while he was a student in the Residential Property Management Program at Ball State University.

“I interned with Glick while I was a graduate student and started working at Westhaven, which is a luxury apartment community in Zionsville,” he said. “Then, after college, I began working at the community full-time as the assistant property manager, gaining skills on the administrative side of property management.”

From there, Alex spent the next year as assistant property manager for The Maxwell and Mozzo apartment communities in downtown Indianapolis. He effectively leased up and stabilized the new 65-unit Mozzo apartment community within three months of opening, and he provided support and leasing to two other new apartment communities at the same time.

In 2014, he received the Indiana Apartment Association Award for Assistant Manager of the Year.

“Being an assistant, and then property manager, at those communities really helped me see the financial piece and the importance of working within budgets,” he said. “While supervising and managing, I had to maintain the operating budget and still find ways to increase revenue and the value of the properties. And they were in a highly competitive downtown market. It was an amazing learning experience.”

Though he enjoyed being onsite, Alex’s goal was to work in the corporate office. So, when a position in the marketing department became available, he decided it was a good move.

“During my time in marketing, I was involved with the rollout of three big tools within the company — a new lease agreement, offering internal resident surveys at our conventional properties, and the startup of our customer relationship management tool. I’ve been able to review and analyze Glick’s advertising sources and provide feedback on what’s working and what’s not. And I’ve had an insider’s look at the various demographics and target markets for our individual properties.”

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Freeman with Glick CEO David O. Barrett[/caption]

The position also gave Freeman the opportunity to get more invested in the company’s philanthropic endeavors — a major reason he began his relationship with Glick in the first place.

“The philanthropic side of the company has always been a big deal for me,” he said. “My grandmother lived in a Glick property in Fort Wayne, and I remember visiting her and seeing how much pride she had in the community she lived in because of what the Glick name stands for. Mr. Glick was always focused on helping others, and that’s why I wanted to work here from the beginning. It means so much for me to see the values of this company that my grandmother loved so much, to see firsthand what she was talking about, and to know it’s true.”

Because of his volunteer efforts with Glick Cares, a program that encourages Glick employees to volunteer and support programs within the community, Alex was named the inaugural winner of the individual Glick Cares Volunteer Award in 2017.

“It was a huge honor to win the award,” Freeman said. “Giving back has always been a passion of mine and was one of the main reasons why I wanted to work for the Glick Company. What has meant the most to me is seeing our volunteer group, Glick Cares, grow from a handful of people to a group of more than 90 employees, along with their families and friends, joining together to give back.”

As he moves on to a new role within the Glick Company, Alex continues his education about a company that continues to impact residents and employees every day.

“The Glick Company holds such high standards and expectations, and that’s why they are the best in the industry,” he said. “The company challenges us to rise to those standards, and I embrace that and look forward to what the future holds.”