Senior Vice President & Chief Information Officer, Urban Edge Properties
Search every verified Cecilia Li interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Cecilia Li, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Urban Edge Properties, has described innovation as the implementation of new ideas and a new way of thinking, stating that it is part of the company's culture. She has characterized Urban Edge as a "technology-forward" company that is not afraid to implement new tools, provided they solve problems and help drive net operating income. Li has said that on average over the last three years the company has undertaken about 90 technology initiatives annually. She has identified cost, time, and buy-in as the biggest challenges in innovation, noting that in the current economy it is difficult to justify spending on solutions with uncertain returns and that people are busy with daily operations, making time for side projects a challenge. Li has emphasized the importance of communication, stating it is the key to success, and has described her leadership philosophy as requiring a strong work ethic, building a "village" of collaborators, and taking care of that village. Li has discussed her personal journey, noting she began her career as a help desk intern at a real estate brokerage company and later led a business transformation that included an e-commerce launch that generated in one hour what had previously taken an entire day. She has said that many leadership roles like hers are generated for the person and did not exist beforehand. Li has also discussed the importance of including the business in decision-making and design, citing a mistake where a business intelligence dashboard was built without sufficient input and was rejected by the leasing team and CFO. She has stated that people will embrace change if their problems are truly solved and that the goal is to change behavior, not just technology. Li has noted that Urban Edge has an ESG committee chaired by the head of Asset Management and that the company outsources its development, infrastructure, and cybersecurity teams.
“At Urban Edge Properties it is in fact part of our culture — innovation is the implementation of new ideas and a new way of thinking, and because we live in an era that is tech driven it's almost difficult to not think about innovation without technology.”
“It is my responsibility as the CIO to find ways to enable innovation in our organization, but to do this we have to be very clear on who we are as a company — we're not a tech firm but we are a technology‑forward company who's not afraid to implement new tools.”
“So long as those tools provide solutions to problems and it helps drive NOI — net operating income — that's what moves the needle; it's the bottom line.”
“It doesn't always have to be about dollar signs — it could be about efficiency gains — but if you think about the efficiency gains ultimately it will have or should have an impact on the bottom line.”
“For us, 'technology‑forward' means we embrace technology and we're not afraid of it — we may not be a tech firm with a whole tech arm, but we adopt tools that add value.”
“On average over the last three years we do about 90 technology initiatives a year — I do keep count of all the work that we do, and it's impressive.”
“Imagine a company where people have day‑to‑day operations and still have the appetite and time to work on technology initiatives — that speaks volumes about the culture of our company.”
“If you take the meaning of innovation, it's nothing simple — simply the implementation of new ideas and a new way of thinking.”
“I started as an intern for a real estate brokerage company as a help desk, right at the very bottom of the entire stack, and I noticed that people wanted things that worked for them, made their lives easier, and they wanted to be communicated with every step of the journey and included in it.”
“When I joined the company, they had a terrible website and email issues, but what really needed help was the database driving the website, which was a mess; this led to a whole ERP system journey and ultimately a business transformation.”
“From an e-commerce standpoint, before launching our new site, people lined up two blocks around the building to sign up for programs, but after launching the e-commerce site, the revenue that took an entire day before was generated within one hour.”
“I was on my trial leave and looking for a job when I found Urban Edge Properties had a position open that matched exactly what I had done prior to my maternal leave, so I reached out and was fortunate to meet the executive team who liked me, and I'm still here.”
“Many leadership roles like mine are generated for the person and didn't exist beforehand; we're still in a time where the industry is trying to understand how these roles develop and evolve over the next four or five years.”
“Cost, time, and buy-in are the biggest challenges we face in innovation. In this economy, it's hard to justify spending a significant amount of money to build a solution when the return on investment is uncertain. We really have to ask ourselves if the juice is worth the squeeze.”
“People are busy with their daily operations and nine to five jobs, so finding time to work on side projects or innovation initiatives is a real challenge. Most technology projects are reactive, often triggered by unfavorable situations like COVID-19 or natural disasters.”
... evolve and and I think especially during a period of digital transformation when everything is in flux and everything is changing ...
... leadership being about bringing people with you I'm really just interested in a in a short insight about digital transformation then ...
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