Highland’s Head of New Business, Blake Mariner, who this year was awarded Business Development Manager of The Year at the Real Estate Business [REB] Awards 2024, has just been announced as the newest Partner at Highland. After 10 years with the company this is yet another great advancement in Mr Mariner’s career, after his elevation as a team leader in the New Business department in late 2022.
“The opportunity to become a partner at Highland represents a significant milestone in my career,” he says. “I am eager to contribute to the continued success and growth of the business that has provided me with an incredible amount of support and guidance from day one.”
Celebrating 10 years with Highland this January, Mr Mariner has seen his journey at Highland encompass leasing, property management, sales and for the last 8 years new business. CEO, David Highland, is incredibly proud of Blake’s tenure with the company, having witnessed his incredible growth closely during that time.
“Blake has been a real asset to Highland since he started with us in 2014,” Mr Highland commented. “I have greatly enjoyed watching his career progress and see him flourish in the industry as well as a leader of our group. It has been extremely rewarding to work with Blake, whose career has closely mirrored my own in numerous ways. To see him now as a partner of Highland is fantastic and it couldn’t have happened to a more deserving candidate.”
Recognised at an industry level multiple times over his time with Highland, Mr Mariner has been named REB BDM of the year twice in the last 4 years and has been recently invited as a speaker at the upcoming Australian Real Estate Conference [AREC] 2024 where the key note speaker is Ryan Reynolds.
“It’s incredibly humbling to be recognised by industry bodies for my achievements in real estate,” Blake said. I work extremely hard with the aid of my fantastic team so to take home BDM of the Year for the second time and be asked to speak at a large industry conference such as AREC is not only an incredible feat for me personally but also a reflection of our wider team – without whom I wouldn’t be able to produce the results that I do.”
Alongside Anna Brooks and Brad McHugh, Mr Mariner has been an important figurehead in the Highland Property Management Department which now has 3,800 properties under management. As Head of New Business, he has made an art of helping clients realise their properties’ potential as an investment and continuously build upon the larger Highland portfolio with an average of 500 new business signed to the company each year for the last 5 years. With rent arrears repeatedly kept under 2% for the department, his commitment and dedication to Highland over the last 10 years has been instrumental to this success.
