Diverse responsibilites and collaboration in the spotlight

With the desire to learn and work in real estate investment, the alignment between my own values and those of Urban Partners drew me to apply for an internship. Growing up in Germany and having had the opportunity to work and study across Europe, Hong Kong, and the USA, I built my educational and professional foundation across various cultures, embracing values such as diversity, open-mindedness, continuous learning, and collaboration. Combined with my interest in private equity and sustainability, Urban Partners felt like a place where these values were present and not only articulated but genuinely lived.

My experience of culture, values, collaboration & learning

This became incredibly clear already in my first week. Getting to know my team in Frankfurt was incredibly easy because everyone was very approachable, eager to connect, and contributed to a reinforcing and comforting work environment. Numerous catch-up talks and team events/activities were only the tip of the iceberg, but the real foundation emerged through the openness of teams to communicate and collaborate, along with the meeting check-ins.

As an investor with Nordic roots, getting to know colleagues across teams and countries was an incredibly rewarding experience, as I quickly realized that every Urbanite brings a high level of open-mindedness, care, and genuine interest in others into their work. The habit of everyone checking in at the start of every UP meeting is not just symbolic, but ensures everyone is on the same page, prepared, informed, and connected on a personal level. This fosters more open and friendly connections across teams and countries, creating a stronger sense of unity. The shared goal of contributing to a sustainable urban future further motivates everyone and gives daily work a strong sense of purpose.

An interesting characteristic of Urban Partners is also that they like to expand into countries while being aware they don’t have any expertise there, embracing and taking advantage of local knowledge, expertise, and culture to thrive in a new market. Therefore, even our Germany team is diversely represented, with transactions, asset management, asset development, sustainability, MAST, and more, all bringing local experience. This construct of a diverse team enables a continuous learning environment where I can learn from established and senior professionals in their fields. Everyone is open and eager to talk, and motivated to improve or optimize projects, share knowledge and opinions, and learn from each other. This collaborative environment really isn’t a given asset in most companies.

My tasks & responsibilities

In my first week, I was always asked what I wanted to learn or gain from my experience here at UP. This proactive approach by the team enabled me to communicate much more clearly the areas in which I had no experience, as well as the areas where I wanted to learn more. They could immediately tell me which projects they could put me on and which teams or individuals I should approach to make the most of the internship.

In my first month alone, I was able to support one very large and incredibly interesting transactions project and, together with my team, prepare it for the investment committee (IC). Simultaneously, I was able to support an emerging MAST (M&A and Strategic Transactions) project with another team spread across countries. Along with market research, regulatory research, and managing project leads, my largest non-transaction task was the rework of our opportunity/leads pipeline for the German transactions team. This task was not just perfectly aligned with experience gathered from previous internships but also brought me to communicate with various members of different teams across different countries.