Shelley Balanda

Founder + COO at Footprynt

Speaker

As Founder of Footprynt, Shelley Balanda serves as a fractional COO and strategic advisor to commercial real estate firms navigating the operational complexity that defines their next chapter. Since 2020, her work has unlocked over $50 million in enterprise value for founder-led and secondgeneration platforms navigating growth, transition, and institutional readiness.

Shelley launched Footprynt after seeing a critical gap: mid-market operators had talent and credibility but lacked the infrastructure to scale. She embeds within CRE firms to align leadership, design scalable workflows, and build the operational systems required to execute at the next level. Her work spans organizational design, process architecture, capital enablement, and governance across office, retail, industrial, and multifamily sectors.

She brings over two decades of experience in acquisitions, capital strategy, and asset management. Shelley has overseen $5 billion in real estate transactions and structured over $1 billion in joint venture equity. Prior to founding Footprynt, she held leadership roles at AEW, Eastdil Secured, UBS, PRCP, and Wilder, where she built internal operating frameworks and led large-scale organizational transformation. Her experience spans both institutional platforms and entrepreneurial teams, giving her a rare ability to operate at both altitude and depth.

Her accolades include 2023 Globe St. Women of Influence, 2024 CREW Boston Entrepreneur of the Year, and 2025 Transformational Strategist in CRE. She serves as Co-Chair of the CREW Boston Entrepreneur Exchange and is a member of CREW, ICSC, NAIOP and ULI.