Meet Giovanni Ponce
Gio Ponce was born an only child in El Paso, Texas. As an only child, he became incredibly social and developed many friends along the way. He excelled in school, graduating in the top 20 of his high school class. He also displayed a strong grasp leadership early on, serving as senior class president and in leadership roles in marching band, academic groups, and youth group. After high school, he attended Wheaton College in Illinois, graduating cum laude with a degree in anthropology in four years.
In an effort to continue his interest in different cultures, he was accepted into an accelerated one year master's program in The Netherlands, studying cultural anthropology at Leiden University. For his master's thesis, he conducted his field research on the acculturation processes of American expats living South Africa by spending three months in Johannesburg. He graduated with a master's degree in cultural anthropology at the end of the one year program and then moved back to El Paso.
Back in El Paso, he took his first job in property management as he felt that his affinity for cultural differences and passion for people would make him an ideal candidate for a leasing professional. His first community was a new construction lease up and he thrived as he helped lease the community to stabilization. After two years, he felt ready to take on the challenge of life in a larger city and moved to Denver, Colorado.
In Denver and over the course of seven years, he experienced many different property management scenarios including property acquisitions, dispositions, large scale water mitigations, properties ranging from being built in 1972 to brand new, properties ranging from 108 units to 400, properties in the heart of downtown to ones out in the suburbs, garden style and midrises, helping to manage as a regional floater, and going through promotions from leasing consultant, to assistant manager, to property manager, to senior property manager.
In 2019 he found his "home" company with Windsor Communities. He has loved the supportive work environment he found there and all the opportunities he's had to train, grow, lead, and work with team members, peers, and regional and corporate staff. With Windsor, he's been a vocal proponent of diversity in the workplace, bringing attention to several areas of opportunity along the way. His belief is that in this country, as a general rule, people of color have to work twice as hard to get the same opportunities that are handed to white people. This helps drive his strong work ethic and motivates him to rise to the top in terms of performance in everything he does.
Gio Ponce
Category
Diversity Leadership Program - Participant Application
Description
Meet Giovanni Ponce, Senior Property Manager for Element 47 by Windsor in Denver, Colorado.