Robert Shaeffer

About Robert Shaeffer

Mr. Shaeffer serves as Director of Educational Institutions Design at Pickering Associates. He has responsibility for the Education Division which comprises 4 year Universities, Community Colleges, and Technical schools respectively. Pickering is a large full-service Architectural and Engineering firm.Prior to joining Pickering Mr. Shaeffer served as VP of Development for the East coast, with an emphasis on Florida and the Southeast, for Equity Commercial Real Estate. A national full spectrum commercial real estate firm headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. Before Equity, Mr. Shaeffer served as National Director of Real Estate for Argo AI. Argo is an artificial intelligence start up pursuing the development of fully autonomous vehicles. During his tenure significant real estate acquisitions and construction management were concluded in Pennsylvania, California, Michigan and New Jersey. Prior to joining Argo Mr. Shaeffer was a partner in a local real estate development firm in Tampa, Florida. Before this from 2004 to 2010 Mr. Shaeffer served as VP of Dev of Haydon-Rubin Dev, in Tampa. A developer of office and industrial parks.Prior to Haydon-Rubin, Mr. Shaeffer lived and worked in Moscow, Russia as a Senior RE Advisor with an International Advisory. While in Russia Mr. Shaeffer worked with US & European multi-national corporations & investors providing contract negotiations, analyses and guidance through the complex transactional processes and cultural/ethical nuances of business in Eastern Europe, Western Europe and the Middle East.Before moving abroad, Mr. Shaeffer served in New York as NE Reg Dev Mgr. for General Motors Worldwide Real Estate. Directly responsible for the site acquisition & integrated RE Dev of all Dealer facilities for all six GM automotive divisions in NY, NJ, & CT- He developed on average 20-30 projects concurrently.Mr. Shaeffer has worked in multiple disciplines of the CRE industry. He holds a degree in Real Estate & Urban Land Economics from The Ohio State University, Fisher College of Business.

Experience

1. Director of Educational Institutions Design

   Pickering Associates, Inc

   Aug 2025 — Present

   Pickering Associates is a large Architecture & Engineering firm with four offices and 80 people on staff. They are a full-service A&E firm offering on the Architecture side: Architectural & Interior Design Services. On the Engineering side: Civil, Structural, Mechanical, Electrical, Pluming, Industrial, and Large Processes and Controls Engineering respectively. Pickering also offers a full suite of Surveying and BIM (Building Information Management/Modeling) Services. Additionally, Pickering offers comprehensive CA (Construction Administration) Services.Mr. Shaeffer has full executive responsibility for the Education division of the company which comprises 4 year Universities, Community Colleges, and Technical College Facilities respectively.

Education

• The Ohio State University Fisher College of Business

  B.S.B.A., Real Estate and Urban Land Economics

Skills

• Commercial Brokerage
• International Development and Brokerage
• Real Estate Due Diligence
• Commercial Property Sales
• Commercial Real Estate Development
• Product Development
• Project Management in Multiple Geographic Locations Simultaneously
• Site Acquisition
• Sales Management
• Corporate Real Estate
• Contract Negotiation
• Start-Ups
• Marketing Strategy
• Real Estate Economics
• Brokerage
• Real Estate
• Mergers & Acquisitions
• Investment Properties
• Real Estate Transactions
• Entrepreneurship
• Negotiation
• Leases
• Due Diligence
• Strategic Planning
• Real Estate Development
• Hire/Supervise Outsource Service Providers
• Commercial Real Estate
• Construction Management/
• Critical Chain Project Management
• Brokers
• Business Strategy