Bess Freedman (born May 31, 1969) is an American

businesswoman A businessperson, businessman, or businesswoman is an individual who has founded, owns, or holds shares in (including as an angel investor) a private-sector company. A businessperson undertakes activities (commercial or industrial) for the ...

. She is currently the

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

Brown Harris Stevens Brown Harris Stevens is an American real estate service company headquartered in New York City with offices across the East Coast serving Connecticut, New Jersey, the Hudson Valley, the Hamptons, Palm Beach, and Miami. The original firm was found ...

. Previously, she also practiced law.

Career

Born in

Troy, New York Troy is a city in the U.S. state of New York and the county seat of Rensselaer County. The city is located on the western edge of Rensselaer County and on the eastern bank of the Hudson River. Troy has close ties to the nearby cities of Albany a ...

, Freedman got her undergraduate degree from

Ithaca College Ithaca College is a private college in Ithaca, New York. It was founded by William Egbert in 1892 as a conservatory of music and is set against the backdrop of the city of Ithaca (which is separate from the town), Cayuga Lake, waterfalls, and go ...

and completed her

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

degree at the

University of the District of Columbia The University of the District of Columbia (UDC) is a public historically black land-grant university in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1851 and is the only public university in the city. UDC is a member school of the Thurgood Marshall ...

. She practiced law as an Assistant State's Attorney and worked as an attorney at

Legal Aid Society The Legal Aid Society is a 501(c)(3) non-profit legal aid provider based in New York City. Founded in 1876, it is the oldest and largest provider of legal aid in the United States. Its attorneys provide representation on criminal and civil matt ...

. In 2003, Freedman joined the

Corcoran Group Corcoran Group is an American real estate firm founded in 1973 by Barbara Corcoran. History Barbara Corcoran, a former diner waitress, founded her own real estate company in 1973 with a $1,000 loan. In 2001, Barbara Corcoran sold her company t ...

, an American

real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...

firm. At the Corcoran Group, she served as Senior Managing Director for the East Side headquarters. In 2013, Freedman joined

(BHS) as Senior Vice President. In 2017, she was named co-president of BHS alongside Hall Willkie. Less than a year later, Freedman was appointed as the company's first CEO. In 2018, while at an event for the Asian Real Estate Association of America
Ms. Freedman made headlines
for publicly confronting John Catsimatidis, CEO of the Red Apple Group, for comments he made about Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. In 2020, Freedman became one of the first NYC-based brokerage leaders to offe
Election Day as a paid company holiday to all employees
nationwide. In 2022, when Roe vs. Wade was overturned, Ms. Freedman announced that Brown Harris Stevens woul
reimburse travel expenses up to $4,000
for any real estate agent or employee who must travel to access safe and legal reproductive healthcare.

References

People from Troy, New York Ithaca College alumni University of the District of Columbia alumni Legal Aid Society {{DEFAULTSORT:Freedman, Bess 1969 births Living people 20th-century American women lawyers 20th-century American lawyers American women chief executives 21st-century American businesswomen 21st-century American businesspeople