30 Mar 2016

BALTIMORE, MD (March 30, 2016) — Blue Ocean Director of HR, Tova Brody, was recognized by SmartCEO as one of the region’s management all-stars. Brody was a recipient of Smart CEO’s 2016 Baltimore Executive Management Award. The Executive Management Award program recognizes the leadership and accomplishments of upper management within a region. Award winners uphold the highest ethics, lead collaboratively and creatively, and enhance and support the organization’s mission. Nominations are reviewed by an independent committee of local business leaders and winners are chosen based on the quality of the nominations submitted. EMA winners were profiled in the March/April issue of SmartCEO magazine and celebrated at an awards reception in March.

Tova Brody joined Blue Ocean 6 years ago as an Assistant Property Manager. She’s held the Director of HR position for the last 4 years. In her time as the HR Director, Brody has improved overall hiring and onboarding at Blue Ocean by implementing a comprehensive online and in-person screening process that has made for a much happier employee culture.

Another challenge Brody has worked to overcome is, “Keeping the culture the same at all levels of the company” Brody reports. To overcome this challenge, she started a Culture Club where everyone from the service teams to executives have a voice to talk about what is working and what is not, and how Blue Ocean can make Baltimore a better place.

Additionally, Brody has gone to bat for increased employee benefits and ease of navigation through the benefits packages. For example, short- and long-term disability are now covered at no cost to the employee.

Brody says her motivation comes from her mantra, “Do today what others will not so you can do tomorrow what others cannot.”

About Blue Ocean

Located in Baltimore, MD, Blue Ocean is active in syndicating, purchasing and managing commercial real estate assets in the multifamily, office, retail and industrial sectors. The company was founded in 2004. Since that time Blue Ocean has grown its portfolio to 45 properties valued at over $300,000,000. The Blue Ocean portfolio consists of nearly 3,500 apartment homes and approximately 2,000,000 square feet of commercial space.