Three Life-changing Real Estate Deals Born in the AMDP

Note: A version of this article was published on The Real Deal on October 20, 2025.

Real estate value is based on location, but real estate deals are about who you know.

Last time we spoke with alumni from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design’s Advanced Management Development Program in Real Estate (AMDP), we learned all about the ins and outs of the program’s case study-based courseload. This time around, a new trio of AMDP alumni walked us through the career-changing deals they were able to close thanks to connections they made with their peers. From masterminding data center development across the US to managing a billion-dollar health care real estate portfolio to building an economic city in Saudi Arabia, AMDP grads rely on one another when pioneering the next wave of real estate projects across the world.

Proptech and data centers

Forrest Corral, Class of 2024, had nearly three decades of real estate experience under his belt when he began the AMDP. Corral dipped his toe into the world of Harvard by taking a virtual undergrad class; before he knew it, he’d “fallen in love” with the school and was enrolled in the AMDP.

“You sit around with colleagues from around the world and go through a case study that you’ve all burned a lot of calories reading,” explains Corral. “The professor would ask these provocative questions that got discussion going among the students. It was a really great, symbiotic way of learning.”

For Corral, attending the AMDP was a little bit like “going to church,” where a diverse group of people came together for a common purpose and made connections that fueled their careers for the rest of their lives.

“I constantly boast about the network that’s been created at the AMDP,” says Corral. “I’m humbled that I’m allowed to be a part of it.”

Corral is, of course, being modest. The seasoned commercial real estate operator has leveraged the AMDP network in deals that span the continent, from a billion-dollar, thousand-acre development with an incoming student in Corral’s native California to importing proprietary homebuilding software from Canada, to a recent data center venture on the East Coast.

“I was just writing an option agreement for a guy in my class,” says Corral. The classmate is Ryan Fletcher, who is building a 150,000 square foot storage facility in Connecticut. “He has another 20 acres adjacent to that storage site, and I went to him and said, ‘This would make a great data center if we could get the power.’”

Forrest Corral, AMDP Class 24 in March 2024 with fellow members of Class 24, including Ryan Fletcher.

The Connecticut data center play is part of a stock option agreement Corral has with “a large Silicon Valley tech company” that gave Corral a mandate to build as many data centers as he can. 

I never would have done that deal if I wasn’t in the AMDP,” he says. “Without these connections, it never would have happened.

Leveling up your career before graduation

Like Chihoski, Nancy Hanright, Class of 2025, was thrust into the real estate world while working in the healthcare industry. In her managerial role at Boston Medical Center, Hanright was responsible for interior buildouts across the medical center’s holdings. 

I really felt that, in order to take the next step in my career, I wanted more formal training,” explains Hanright.

The timing couldn’t have worked out any better for Hanright. Just months after enrolling in the AMDP, Boston Medical Center Health System’s real estate portfolio tripled thanks to the integration of two hospitals previously owned by Steward Health Care. Hanright was given a promotion to Executive Director of Real Estate and Space Planning to oversee the integration of two entire hospitals into BMC Health System’s network.

“Figuring out how to solve for the economic challenges of these institutions will be critically important to their revitalization,” says Hanright, who has tapped into her network of AMDP peers to help her navigate her new position. “There’s a mutual respect for what we’re all doing. Everybody learns from each other.”

Nancy Hanright, AMDP Class 25 in March 2025 with fellow members of Class 25, following their Jury Day presentations

From Illinois to Emaar

Most AMDP grads are already working in the C-suite when they begin the program, and Michael Chihoski, Class of 2012, was no different. Chihoski was Senior VP at OSF HealthCare System when he applied to the AMDP, helping to manage a healthcare system that spanned 17 hospitals and 300 off-site locations.

“I’m an engineer by background, and I kind of got thrust into real estate,” recalls Chihoski. “It wasn’t an area that I had a lot of experience in, so I found a program that I could use to enhance my real estate knowledge.”

One of Chihoski’s classmates at AMDP was the CEO of King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC), an ambitious planned city in the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia. During their time in the program, which promotes close relationships within the cohort via intensive team projects and class discussions, Chihoski and this classmate became friends.

“Toward our last session on campus, he came up to me and said, ‘I’d really like to talk,’” says Chihoski. “I joked with him, ‘I’m not moving to Saudi Arabia.’”

For example, Chihoski tapped into the AMDP network to facilitate a joint venture between KAEC, Babson College and Lockheed Martin. Through a few other AMDP classmates, Chihoski was able to make a personal connection with the President of Babson College. The result? A 10-year commitment by Lockheed Martin to fund a Babson Global campus in KAEC.

After his time in Saudi Arabia, Chihoski returned to the States and worked as CEO Aristo Properties Group and Gulf Development International, Senior Associate Vice President of University of Rochester, and, most recently, as Vice President of Facilities, Design & Construction for UCHealth.

The real estate here is at a much higher level than what I was doing previously,” says Chihoski. “They claim that AMDP is life-changing. I’m a poster child of that.