Powerlist – David Turnbull – Founder and Chairman – Brighton

For 34 years, David Turnbull has invested his creativity and passion into Brighton’s business operations. As the founder and chairman of the residential and commercial real estate development firm, the company has seen incredible growth. In the last 18 months alone, Brighton has grown from 80 team members to more than 150.

Turnbull said he cut his teeth in the real estate industry alongside his father-in-law, who was a pioneer in local real estate development. He gave Turnbull the opportunity to start learning the business and since then, the rest has been history. He shared that while growth has been explosive recently, it is partially because of making good, sound business decisions in years past ― even when the real estate industry was seeing a huge downtown.

“Certainly, the 2008 financial crisis impacted the real estate industry profoundly,” he explained. “This period wasn’t easy for any of us. It was perilous for many, but it was pivotal for Brighton.

We’d been conservative during the boom times and that posture put us in a position to make acquisitions and grow during the downturn. We used it as an opportunity to explore new opportunities, bring aboard great talent and refocus our core business divisions.”

Turnbull ― who loves business and creating ― said that this is his ideal career and he can’t wait to continue to build a strong company culture.

“At Brighton, we believe our most important assets are our reputation and our people,” he said. “This is an important new era at Brighton, as we focus on preparing the next generation of the Brighton team for success.”