February 29, 2016

W. Cary Whitehead III


By Jane Aldinger
– The Memphis Business Journal –

Cary Whitehead knew what he wanted to do as a undergraduate at the University of Mississippi, and he has been in the commercial real estate business ever since.

His career in the Memphis real estate market spans more than three decades and his experience extends through the “three main food groups” of the real estate business – office, retail and industrial.

A life-long Memphian, Whitehead graduated from Memphis University School in 1968 and finished his bachelor of business administration degree at the University of Memphis in 1972.

Now senior vice president with Boyle Investment Co., Whitehead oversees retail development and finance. He started with Boyle in 1995 after leaving Towermarc Corp.

While with Towermarc, Whitehead developed International Place Towers I and II. That high-profile development in the Poplar corridor, and his involvement in relocating International Paper operations from New York to Memphis, was one of his proudest career moments, he says.

Whitehead also has been involved in developing Southwind Office Center, Gallina Centro shopping center and buildings for Baptist Hospital, National Guard Products, Physiotherapy Associates, Chi Omega sorority and Kappa Delta sorority.

Listing Whitehead’s responsibilities at Boyle, company chairman Bayard Boyle says he handles income property financing, new loans and refinancing, retail development and retail management.

“He’s got a tremendous depth of experience in the real estate business, and he’s got excellent investment judgment.” Boyle says, “He is a very competent financial analyst and he is highly knowledgeable about making commercial mortgage loans. He’s improved our lender contacts, and he helps us a lot in deciding what to buy and how to structure the deal.”

Integrity and ethics are principal for Whitehead, and although he contends that the people he’s met are ethical, “he says. “I don’t know that a person at 34 can make that statement. I have seen a decline in moral and ethical values over my business career, but the ones who you can’t trust, everybody knows.”

An outdoors enthusiast, dove and duck hunting and fly fishing are Whitehead’s favorite hobbies. He also enjoys snow skiing when he can get his children to ski with him.

“I’ve met some of the people that I like being with the most through fishing and hunting,” he says.

Whitehead’s list of professional affiliations is extensive.

Among them, he is a member and past president of the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors, the Commercial Investment Real Estate Institute and Lambda Alpha International, where he is also a member of its Multi-Million Dollar Sales Club. He also serves on the Urban Land Institute.

Another project he is involved in and has enjoyed for more than three years is the Read to Succeed program at Emmanuel Episcopal Center.

Education is paramount, Whitehead says, and he has tried to instill the value in his own children. He says one of the most important facets of a thorough education is understanding people from different cultures and different countries, and says that if he had one wish it would be that comparative religion would be a required course.

“The world is getting smaller,” he says. “Getting to know people from different cultures and seeing people from different countries is important because you have to understand them.”

Bringing all his expertise and experience to Boyle’s table nearly a decade ago, Boyle says Whitehead has been a knowledgeable and respected resource for the company.

“He’s a fine person with high integrity, and he’s a very self-disciplined person, very methodic and meticulous,” he says. “He’s a great asset."