Pocket Résumés
Rick McCready ’84: President, The Davis Companies. Omni-Present: His team arranged the deal for the coming $550 million Omni Hotel Seaport; The Davis Companies will own half of it. Rosemary McCready ’84: Broker and Luxury Property Specialist, Coldwell Banker. Law Comes in Handy: She uses her legal skills when negotiating and writing contracts. “I could probably use a psychiatric degree, too.”
She sells luxury real estate properties and has been called a “Realtor to the stars” by the Boston Globe. He is president of a real estate company with more than $3 billion in assets. True to the mantra, “location, location, location,” location played a role in launching this power couple. And it just happened to be the location of their last names in the alphabet that clinched the deal.
“I met Rick on our first day of law school,” recalls Rosemary McCready ’84 of the moment she met her future husband, Rick McCready ’84. “I was then McCarthy and all of the McCs were thrown together for events. Rick showed up in a tattered denim jacket. I had big hair and was dressed like Legally Blonde. As I was walking away from campus, Rick came driving by. We only knew each other’s last names, so he rolled down the window and called out, ‘Hey, McCarthy, do you want a ride?’ We instantly hit it off.”
Married since 1987, the couple have carved out their own niches in the real estate stratosphere. Rick specializes in the finance side. “When I graduated from law school, I went to work at Mintz Levin,” Rick explains. “I gravitated to the real estate group. What really interested me was funding and strategy.” So, Rick joined Winthrop Financial Associates in 1990 as general counsel, and before long was running the company. From there, he headed a handful of high-profile real estate finance companies.
Meanwhile, Rosemary was a full-time trial attorney until 1991, when she began having children; she gave birth to three in four years. When they reached school age, she joined Coldwell Banker in Weston. In 2017 she sold close to $50 million in real estate and is ranked 16 out of 4,000 agents in terms of total sales in New England for Coldwell Banker.
How did she rise to real estate’s highest echelons? “Through charitable and nonprofit connections,” explains Rosemary, who has volunteered and been a board member for organizations like the Meadowbrook School, which her children attended, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “It enhanced my network and created a bond, so that when I went into real estate, people already trusted me,” she says.
Volunteering also paved the way for a major change in Rick’s life. “When the financial downturn came, I felt like I needed to take a pause and get off the carousel,” he says. “So, I left my job in 2010, did some personal investing in distressed securities while I sorted out what I wanted to do next. I got more involved with company and nonprofit boards.” He met The Davis Companies founder John Davis when both were on the Boys & Girls Club board.
When Davis needed a president and partner for his company, he asked Rick to take the job. “At The Davis Companies, we have a broad canvas,” says Rick. The company has made more than 175 real estate-related investments representing more than 20 million square feet of commercial space and 7,500 residential units.
While real estate can be a world of highs and lows, the McCreadys’ marriage doesn’t fluctuate: “We speak the same language,” says Rick. “When we get home, we share the victories and difficulties and get advice from one another.”
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