Heather Lin, BSRE ’22, has used her real estate foundation from Runstad to step into investment banking, now advising clients on M&A deals at Harris Williams.
With an interest in business, Heather began her way into real estate and investment banking through the UW Investment Banking Accelerator, a student-led group where she found a professional community that matched her ambition and curiosity. As she advanced in the program, she moved into mentorship and leadership roles, helping others navigate the rigorous recruiting process for banking internships.
Throughout her time at UW, Heather remained open to new opportunities—which is how she found the Runstad Department of Real Estate. “Real estate for me was particularly interesting,” she mentions. “Real estate investing is something that I’ve been exposed to from a young age”. But more than that, I saw a lot of parallels between real estate and finance.” Courses like Real Estate Valuation, where she once appraised a fraternity house, helped bridge her analytical skill set with tangible assets. She also minored in Data Science and International Studies to fulfill her curiosity across disciplines.
Internships were a key part of Heather’s path. After a tough initial search—including an internship at a search fund—she landed a role at Lakeside Partners, a local investment bank focused on family and founder-owned businesses in the Pacific Northwest. She interned with the team during the school year, which exposed her to the right environment, terminology, and key areas in the investment banking universe. That experience paved the way to a competitive summer analyst role at Harris Williams, a global investment bank specializing in mergers & acquisitions and private capital advisory services, where she later returned full-time.
“At Harris Williams, we work with private equity clients and institutional investors. What does a real estate agent play in the process of selling a home or a commercial property – there are significant parallels between the roles that an agent plays in a real estate transaction that bankers play for companies.” Heather works within the Healthcare & Life Sciences group. She notes that the healthcare field ended up matching her desire for learning different business models that can be applied to other industries. She emphasized how intellectual curiosity and asking thoughtful questions helped her succeed.
Outside of her career, Heather is a lifelong snowboarder and skier. She competed nationally with USASA and even founded UW’s Snowboard Team. Though she now rides recreationally, her love for the sport persists. Snowboarding taught her discipline, risk-taking, and resilience—traits that have clearly served her well in the high-stakes world of investment banking.