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Interview with Brian Lawson, CFO of Brookfield Asset Management: True Strategic Business Partner

As a 25-year veteran of Brookfield Asset Management, CFO Brian Lawson has seen some of the wildest times in the history of equity markets, real estate volatility, and risk management as any finance professional. During one of the worst global downturns since the Great Depression, Lawson has helped steer company revenue growth from $12 billion in 2009 to $18.7 billion in 2012, making Brookfield the largest company of its kind in Canada and ranked among the top 25 largest companies in the country.

After more than a century in business, Brookfield has 23,000 employees in 100 offices around the globe. It also has $181 billion of assets under management (AUM), including: 131 office buildings; 175 shopping malls; 19,800 units of multifamily homes (apartment buildings and condominiums); 200 hydroelectric dams in Canada, the United States, and Brazil; 11 wind farms in Canada and the U.S.; Western Australia’s only railroad; 3,200 kilometers (3,000 miles) of South America toll roads; electrical transmission networks in Chile, Colombia, Canada, and Texas; natural gas pipelines in the U.S.,...