Elizabeth Birch

Elizabeth Birch is a Vice President at the global commercial real estate firm, CBRE, where she specializes in corporate, trade association, law firm and nonprofit tenants. She combines her extensive legal expertise (Chief Litigation and HR Counsel, Apple Computer, Inc. & General Counsel Claris Corporation) with her extensive management and advocacy expertise to deliver exceptional outcomes for each client. Elizabeth is particularly interest in organizational culture and the way in which concepts of diversity and equity can inform the optimal design of a workplace.

Elizabeth received one of the top civil rights awards from the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights for her work in advancing LGBTQ equality. In 1995, she came to Washington DC to serve as President and CEO of the Human Rights Campaign. Birch and as her team saw the organization through a momentous decade of growth, visibility and helped to drive a cultural shift in the understanding of LGBTQ people. She introduced the HRC Corporate Equality Index and Workplace Project, both of which help usher in an era of workplace supportive policies for LGBTQ employees in every industry and in every corner of the country. While at HRC she helped established the organization’s award winning new HR Building. This showed her the power of intelligent real estate planning and the inspiration such a landmark can spark in pursuit of equality. She brings these lessons to her clients today.

Elizabeth is most energized when she is helping to drive systemic change to crack open opportunities and access for those traditionally left at the margins “and to drum out inequality wherever she sees it. Elizabeth majored in Oceanography and Political Science at the University of Hawai’I, received her law degree from Santa Clara University School of Law. She has an Honorary PhD in Humanities for her civil and human rights work from the University of Hawai’i.