Gold Circle Award Nominations

GUIDELINES 

To participate in the BOMA/Chicago Gold Circle Awards, nominees must meet the following criteria: 

General Requirements for All Categories 

• All applicants must be nominated by someone else. Self-nominations will not be accepted.  
• All nominees must be employed by a BOMA/Chicago member building or affiliate company. 
• All categories require a minimum length of experience in commercial real estate. The judging panel may exercise its discretion to determine whether internship or other experience qualifies and may require additional information about the experience to make that determination. 
• All required materials must be completed and submitted as outlined in the official nomination forms. 
• Award recipients will not be eligible to resubmit for a minimum of two years following their recognition; for example, a 2025 recipient could reapply in 2027 for the 2028 award. 
• Nominees who accept their nomination are not eligible to serve on the Judging Panel in the year of nomination.  

Category-Specific Requirements 

Affiliate Member of the Year 

• Must meet the general requirements above. 
• Must have a minimum of five years of experience in commercial real estate at the time of nomination. 
• Nominations may be submitted by affiliate companies and by building members. A company may nominate only one person. An affiliate company may nominate someone from its own company. 
• Only one person can accept a nomination from within the same affiliate company, except that an affiliate company may accept multiple nominations if they are in different service lines (e.g., Affiliates R’ Us Engineering and Affiliates R’ Us Janitorial could each have a nominee accept because they are in different service lines). 
• Finalists must participate in a 30-minute in-person interview. 

Building Engineer of the Year:

• Must meet the general requirements above. 
• Must have a minimum of five years of experience in commercial real estate at the time of nomination. 
• Nominations must be submitted by building members. Each building management company may submit only one nomination for an engineer, whether employed in-house or by contract. 
• There is no limit to the number of nominations that can be accepted from within the same affiliate company. 
• Finalists must participate in a 30-minute in-person interview and 15-minute building tour. 

Janitorial Professional of the Year:  

• Must meet the general requirements above. 
• Must have a minimum of five years of experience in commercial real estate at the time of nomination. 
• Nominations must be submitted by building members. Each building management company may submit up to three nominations if they are all from different buildings.  
• There is no limit to the number of nominations that can be accepted from within the same affiliate company. 
• Finalists must participate in a 30-minute in-person interview and 15-minute building tour. 

Security Professional of the Year: 

• Must meet the general requirements above. 
• Must have a minimum of five years of experience in commercial real estate at the time of nomination. 
• Nominations must be submitted by building members. Each building management company may submit up to three nominations if they are all from different buildings. 
• There is no limit to the number of nominations that can be accepted from within the same affiliate company. 
• Finalists must participate in a 30-minute in-person interview and 15-minute building tour. 

DEI Leader of the Year: 

• Must meet the general requirements above. 
• Must have a minimum of five years of experience in commercial real estate at the time of nomination. 
• Nominations must be submitted by building members. Each building management company may submit one nomination. 
• Finalists must participate in a 30-minute in-person interview. 

Emerging Leader of the Year: 

• Must meet the general requirements above. 
• Nominees are limited to building members only. 
• Must have at least three, but no more than five years of experience in commercial real estate at the time of nomination.  
• Nominations must be submitted by building members. Each building management company may submit only one nomination. 
• Finalists must participate in a 30-minute in-person interview. 

Property Management Professional of the Year:  

• Must meet the general requirements above. 
• Nominees are limited to building members only. 
• Must have a minimum of five years of experience in commercial real estate at the time of nomination. 
• Nominations must be submitted by building members. Each building management company may submit only one nomination. 
• Finalists must participate in a 30-minute in-person interview. 

JUDGING PANEL 

The Gold Circle Judging Panel is composed of one to three representatives each from at least ten management companies, with a preference for getting representation from those companies with the highest number of BOMA/Chicago Building Members. The Panel will include at least one BOMA/Chicago Board member. BOMA/Chicago staff apportion these judges across each award category to avoid conflicts of interest related to company or building affiliations. It is preferred that no more than one panelist from the same company serves on a category panel. 

The panel is responsible for reviewing all nomination submissions, selecting the top finalists in each category, conducting finalist interviews, and choosing the award recipients. 

For the DEI Leader of the Year Award, a separate panel of external DEI professionals—leaders from outside the commercial real estate industry—will serve as judges, potentially supplemented with industry professionals as non-judging advisers on industry norms and practices. 

Judging Process 

The Gold Circle Awards selection process includes two phases: nomination review and finalist interviews. First, judges review each candidate’s nomination materials and score them against the category’s award criteria. These scores determine which nominees advance as finalists. If a category receives more than three nominations, the panel may choose to limit interviews to the top three scorers. BOMA/Chicago staff compile and tally all scores from this phase. 

Next, BOMA/Chicago staff coordinate finalist interviews and, if applicable, building tours. To ensure fairness, all judges and nominees receive the same set of prepared questions in advance. Following the interviews, judges score each candidate using the same criteria.  Final scores from both the nomination and interview phases are confidential and will be combined by BOMA/Chicago staff to determine the recipients in each category. 

Submit this form if you are interested in judging this year's Gold Circle Awards.