Margaret Whelan, Housing Industry Expert
Margaret Whelan is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Whelan Advisory. She launched the firm in 2014 to provide a tailored, transparent, and deeply experienced alternative to traditional investment banking for owners and founders of homebuilding and construction companies.
Margaret began her career in equity research at Merrill Lynch after graduating with an honors Bachelor’s Degree in Commerce from the University College Dublin in 1994. From 1997 to 2007, she served as a Managing Director and Global Head of Housing Research at UBS, earning Institutional Investor All-America recognition as a top-ranked stock analyst covering more than 30 homebuilding, manufacturing, and retailer stocks.
Between 2007 to 2013, Margaret was a Managing Director and senior coverage partner in the Real Estate and Lodging group within the investment bank at JPMorgan. She advised clients on strategic and capital initiatives through the housing industry’s biggest boom and subsequent downturn.
With over 30 years of industry experience, Margaret is widely recognized for her deep understanding of market drivers, valuation, and capital structure alternatives. She has participated in financing transactions representing $33+ billion in capital raised across a range of mandates.
Whelan Advisory’s unique process →
Margaret is passionate about the opportunities for innovation across the U.S. housing industry. Her firm has advised and raised capital for a range of progressive companies navigating growth, scale, and strategic transformation.
A Trusted Resource
Margaret is a frequent keynote speaker on mergers & acquisitions and capital raising at leading industry events, including the International Builders’ Show, Urban Land Institute, National Association of Homebuilders, Bloomberg, IMN and Wells Fargo.
She is also regularly called upon by major media outlets for expert commentary on market trends and expertise – including The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, CNBC, Forbes, and The Financial Times.
The First and Only Female
Margaret has served as an independent director on several public company and SPAC boards. Notably, in 2015, at age 42, she was appointed to the original board of NYSE: BLD at the time of its IPO, where she was the first and only female director and one of the youngest non-executive NYSE directors
Since then, she has advised numerous companies on board composition and the recruitment of female directors, in particular, female financial experts as defined by Section 407 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
Women’s Housing Leadership Group
Spotlight on industry leader – Margaret Whelan, Founder & CEO of Whelan Advisory Capital Markets
How long have you been in homebuilding?
I started my career in investment banking for homebuilder clients in the 1990s, so nearly 30 years!
To what do you credit your career success?
Grit. I’ve been a competitive sailor since my childhood. It’s a gender-neutral sport, and more than anything else, sailing teaches you the life skills needed to expect the unexpected. Anything can happen on the water, and anything can happen when you’re working in a lumpy business in a cyclical industry! You need grit to stick with it and find the right path forward.
As a woman, what advantages and disadvantages have you experienced in climbing up through your career?
I don’t think about gender. My mindset has always been to focus on being useful to my colleagues or to my clients, and this has served me well. Character and integrity are just as important as capability; we all want to work with people we can trust. It’s important to build a personal brand and reputation.
How have you dealt with the unique challenges women face in the workplace?
I haven’t noticed any unique challenges. Work is hard, life is hard - you pick your “hard”. I’m very grateful for meaningful work and a career in an industry that I’m so passionate about. I’ve also surrounded myself with smart people; if women have to prove ourselves more, then it’s important we figure out how to work smarter versus harder.
What is something you would like to change/be a part of changing?
Homebuilding is very slow to innovate, so we are at risk of being disrupted in the same way that many other industries have been. This is both a risk and an opportunity. I love representing successful entrepreneurs with innovative business models. I believe that the affordability and labor challenges in housing could be resolved if we had more efficient processes, which would reduce the waste and improvisation on job sites, both of which are expensive to the consumer. We need more diverse thought leadership, from the highest ranks, to make this happen. I’m a board member of the Housing Innovation Alliance which is driving great change in this regard.
What’s the best (or worst) career advice you ever received?
Best advice is to ‘stay positive’, which can be applied to any aspect of life. Also, I never take anything personally.
What do you see as the greatest opportunities for women (in our industry)?
Women make the majority of home purchase decisions, so it’s surprising that so much of the leadership in our industry is male. But there have been a lot of successful role models to watch, such as Sheryl Palmer, Chairman, and CEO of a NYSE listed homebuilder. My company is certified as a WBENC, and we’re also a broker dealer, we are one of the only woman-owned and founder-led broker dealers on Wall Street. The opportunities are there, but women definitely have to be smarter to achieve them.
There’s also been a lot of affirmative action over the last few years, including much needed quotas to put more women in corporate board positions. Young people entering the workforce are very well informed, they can easily research the leadership of a potential employer and decide if that company is going to be a good fit for them. Our industry has a PMS problem (pale, male, stale), so attracting the right talent is the most exciting opportunity.
What’s the best way to advocate for yourself in the workplace (whether it’s for a promotion, a salary raise, or more responsibilities)?
Your work speaks for itself, but if you’re in an environment where you’re not being appreciated or finding opportunities then don’t be afraid to move on. I’ve always had a personal board of directors; people I rely on and trust when I need career advice.
What advice do you have for younger women in the workplace?
Be self aware. Nobody can evaluate themselves so surround yourself with mentors and sponsors who will challenge you to improve. Mental health is really important, figure out what helps you to stay sane and make time for it. I love to work out with my family or walk my dog. Don’t take anything too seriously, rebounding efficiently is a key to career success. Live and learn.
How do you manage work-life balance?
There is no balance! I think of life, and careers especially, as chapters, sometimes are going to be longer than others. But the most valuable choice I’ve made is in a life partner who would support my career aspirations. My husband is a full-time parent and fully committed to raising our four children. We are a great team and I love being a professional role model for our children.
How have you dealt with the unique challenges women face in the workplace?
I haven’t noticed any unique challenges. Work is hard, life is hard - you pick your “hard”. I’m very grateful for meaningful work and a career in an industry that I’m so passionate about. I’ve also surrounded myself with smart people; if women have to prove ourselves more, then it’s important we figure out how to work smarter versus harder.
What do you think that WHLG can do to advance the mission/women in our industry?
Networking and finding peers are so important to career success. WHLG helps its members in so many ways, but in particular to feel like we belong and have an important role in the industry, and to support each other. I also enjoy the sessions with successful professionals who share their backgrounds and career tips.
What’s the craziest job you ever had?
Teaching young kids to sail when I was a teenager growing up in Ireland. They don’t listen well and it’s a risky sport. It prepared me well for my current role advising entrepreneurial CEOs!
Favorite book… movie…?
I’m an avid reader and read a couple of books each month. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is an oldie but a goodie, in particular #7: ‘sharpen the saw’. To stay relevant, we all need to be learning as fast as the world is changing. If I’m on a long flight and the movie Wall Street is available, I can’t pass it up, makes me laugh every time.
What is something that people don’t know about you?
Well, I don’t know, but maybe there are some answers for the readers of this interview.