Mary LaForge

Yardi Employee Profile

By Katrina McDowell on Jan 4, 2024 in People

Yardi’s global offices make essential contributions to property management and investors worldwide. Today, meet Mary LaForge, director of programming for Public Housing Authorities (PHA), out of the Santa Barbara office.

Meet Mary LaForge

Mary LaForge has been with Yardi for 21 years. She oversees a team that includes programmers, quality assurance (QA) specialists and technical writers. She also works with the PHA team in Pune, which again consists of programmers, client-services (CSD) support staff, software conversion experts and QA specialists.

“I collaborate with our team as we implement compliance changes in our current products and develop new products, such as Compliance Manager and Asset IQ, on the new Elevate platform. I work closely with HUD to understand policy changes that impact our software,” said LaForge.

Subsidized housing is a challenging and complex market. Working on HUD compliance changes is not easy. Gathering the complex information needed to implement the required changes successfully can be difficult, and there is pressure to deliver on time.

“I view these challenges as an opportunity to excel and grow for Yardi to be a standout vendor in the PHA market. I am fortunate to be working with the talented individuals on our team. I treasure and enjoy our team’s extensive collaboration, ” LaForge expressed.

Working as a member of the PHA team gives LaForge pride and satisfaction because the software helps housing authorities provide housing for the underprivileged.

“In an indirect but substantial way, I believe I am contributing to communities nationwide,” LaForge shared.

In addition, LaForge works and helps the sales team with prospective client demonstrations and participates in client meetings.

Longevity with Teamwork

Yardi is a unique and welcoming company. Collaboration is intentionally and strongly encouraged. Everyone’s ideas and opinions are heard and respected.

“In meetings with peers, vice presidents, or the CEO, everyone feels comfortable providing their thoughts and suggestions. We may intensely and passionately debate how to solve an issue at a meeting, but we can feel comfortable going to lunch with disagreeing people. When a solution does not go as we hoped or planned, we correct the issue, learn from it, and move forward,” explained LaForge.

New hires are always astonished when they discover how long LaForge has been working with Yardi.

“In one of the interviews, there were three of us on the panel, and the collective time spent with Yardi was fifty years! This number is incredible and sometimes unfathomable to these prospective employees,” said LaForge.

Yardi’s corporate culture gives opportunities to work with incredibly talented individuals and hard-working teams to create, contribute to, grow, and develop exceptional products that help communities worldwide.

Yardi is hiring globally! Interested prospective employees can explore opportunities on the Careers site.

An Advocate for Education

LaForge grew up in India and came to the U.S. for a master’s degree. While in India, LaForge was involved with a few organizations for children’s education. Lack of access to education is a significant challenge there.

“I believe education is the only way to narrow this divide. Being a parent of a young child has taken away any extra time for doing this wonderful and satisfying work. But someday soon, I hope to become involved in childhood education again. I am especially interested in education at the elementary school level. My heart very much wants me to do this work in India, possibly starting a school in underprivileged communities there,” explained LaForge.

LaForge’s daughter is nine years old and keeps her super busy. However, time is limited with her when LaForge is traveling for HUD and conferences nationwide and to Pune. Therefore, she tries to spend as much time with her daughter as possible when she is home in Santa Barbara.

“We love to travel as a family. I believe traveling to other countries and learning about other cultures at a young age can nurture tolerance and develop deeper empathy for all human beings,” LaForge shared. (Her husband, Clark, is a 30-year Yardi employee.)

Learn more about the dynamic members of #TeamYardi on the People page.