After more than two decades in the brokerage business, John Boyle has worked on countless real estate deals. Last year, he became the first Boston-based commercial broker to win both the Commercial Brokers Association’s Broker of the Year Leadership Award and the CoreNet Global Services Provider of the Year Award. Before helping start FHO Partners, he was a principal at Trammell Crow Co. and a senior vice president at Fallon Hines & O’Connor. While at Trammell Crow, Boyle was awarded the Top Producer Award as one of the top producers in the nation – all eight years he was with the firm. He is now on the corporate services advisory team at FHO Partners.

John Boyle

Title: Founding Partner, FHO Partners; Boston

Age: 47

Experience: 23 years

Q: What was it about your approach to the job that fit the criteria for the Broker and Global Services Provider of the Year awards?

A: First off, I’m very, very lucky. The commercial brokerage business is a team game right now, and I’m very lucky to work with an incredible team. That includes people in lease administration, lease audit [and] colleagues that I’ve been working with for 20 years. I use the analogy to [New England Patriots Running Back] Danny Woodhead – somebody else brings the ball the length of the field and I punch it in the last two yards. It truly is an FHO Partners award. Without a lot of people here helping out, we wouldn’t be doing those deals. More specifically, I did a deal for the Parametric Technology Corp. for 320,000 square feet in three buildings for their global headquarters campus in Needham in October of 2010. I think the fact that they’re a global firm with offices throughout the world, and the fact they extended for 10 years in Mass. is a great testament to their company and their commitment to the state of Massachusetts. I’m currently working with Kronos and they’re examining alternatives for 300,000 square feet for a corporate headquarters alternative.

Q: What enables you to “punch it in” more effectively than a newer broker might?

A: In my position as a partner in the corporate advisory world, it is my job to oversee a number of these accounts. And it does take some experience to understand when to advocate, how hard to advocate and how extensively to advocate, and then to know when to agree with the landlord – since we are advocating for users – and concede and move forward. At the end of the day you have to have a win-win relationship between the tenant and the landlord. You can’t, in a very soft market, bang the landlord up and then have a tenant live with that for seven to 10 years. It’s the art to the science of crafting the real estate deal in a manner that the relationship is a positive one and a successful one for both the tenant and the landlord.

Q: What are some of the experiences that have helped you get to where you are in your career?

A: I’ve tried to work with integrity. There are a lot of gray areas in our business, and managing those gray areas with integrity is very important. I had an uncle who was a Jesuit priest and he meant a lot to me. He showed me that there’s great reward in serving someone. When we represent these companies and do these deals, we’re serving somebody so they get the most value out of the real estate deal so they can grow and thrive. To work hard and serve someone well is very important to me.

Q: That sounds like it relates to the fact that you also are a strong supporter of youth programs around the city. Can you tell us a little about that?

A: I’ve always had an interest in kids, particularly disadvantaged kids. I support Youth Link, which is an organization that goes into the most difficult housing projects and neighborhoods in the city, like Franklin Field, and basically has the teenagers and kids working with the Boston Police, and gets the kids to know the officers. Initially the kids have a real skepticism with the police, and the police are real skeptical of the kids. But then you bring these two groups together and the kids realize these police are really good guys, and the guys realize they are good kids. Crime, as an example … there has not been one murder in Franklin Field since this program started. It’s a wonderful thing and they’re spreading this around the country. I’m also on the board of the Walker School in Needham, which is for real disadvantaged, troubled kids that are basically at the end of the line. I’m the oldest of three boys, and have two of my own, and I’ve always just had a place in my heart for children and try to help them out.

Boyle’s Top Five Places to Support At-Risk Boston Youth:

1. Youth Link

2. The Walker School

3. Nativity Prep School

4. Bay Cove Human Services

5. YouthConnect of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston