Financial Services >> CEO Interviews >> January 11, 2001
ANDREW C. FLORENCE, Chief Executive Officer of CoStar Group, Inc. since
1995, founded CoStar Group, Inc. in 1987 and served as President and
Director. Mr. Florance positioned CoStar Group to become the leading
provider of comprehensive, building-specific information to the US
commercial real estate industry. Today, headquartered in Bethesda, MD,
CoStar Group is the nation's largest Internet-based provider of
commercial real estate information and analysis; and its products arm
customers with the knowledge they need to make smart decisions. From
1993-96, Mr. Florance was a co-founder and board member of the industry
trade association REI-NEX. Mr. Florance served on the real estate focus
group of Vice President Al Gore's National Performance Review that
developed the concepts related to the federal government's use of real
estate. In addition, the Federal Control Board of the District of
Columbia named Mr. Florance to a task force responsible for developing
the city's strategic plan for real estate. In June 2000, Ernst & Young,
LLP presented Mr. Florance with its Entrepreneur of the Year Award for
his pioneering work in real estate information services and at
Realcomm2000, he received a DIGIE Award in recognition of his impact on
the commercial real estate industry. In January 2000, National Real
Estate Investor named Mr. Florance one of the '21 Stars of Tomorrow' for
his work as a technological leader in the commercial real estate
industry. Also, Commercial Real Estate Woman (CREW) recognized Mr.
Florance for his work with commercial real estate information systems,
with its 15th anniversary award for industry innovation. Mr. Florance is
a frequent speaker and widely published on the subject of real estate
technology and trends. Mr. Florance is a graduate of Princeton
University with a degree in Economics. Prior to founding the company,
Mr. Florance was President of Real Estate Infonet, a real estate public
records publishing firm. Mr. Florance held primary responsibility for
developing the first generation software products for Federal Filings, a
13-D tracking service which was later acquired by Dow Jones. From
1989-1993, Mr. Florance was the publisher of Cornerstone, a leading
directory of Washington area commercial real estate Profile
Mr. Florance: CoStar was founded back in 1987 because it was apparent
that there was no quality third party information in
