Leslie Whatley

Executive Vice President, Start Up New York

Empire State Development Corp.

Leslie Whatley is currently Executive Vice President, Start Up New York for the Empire State Development Corp. She is a globally respected executive with extensive real estate and management experience across multiple industry sectors and geographies.

Leslie held various leadership positions at General Motors during her 16 year tenure there. The last 13 years have been spent as the Global Head of Real Estate for Morgan Stanley (8 years) and previously JPMorganChase (5 years). In these positions she was responsible for portfolio strategy, space planning, data management, transaction management, and project management.

Leslie served on the Executive Board of Directors of CoreNet Global for 8 years and served as Chairman of the Board her final year. Leslie currently serves on the Executive Board of NYU's Schack School of Real Estate. Leslie received both a Bachelor's Degree in Economics and a Master's Degree in Business Administration from the University of Michigan.