Jody Bankston Mar22

Jody Bankston

If you told a teenage Jody Bankston that he’d grow up to be an expert in business intelligence for a commercial real estate company, and spend free time doing intense CrossFit workouts that would make even a top athlete cringe, he probably wouldn’t have believed you. “My life has been a little bit strange,” says CBL & Associates’ Manager of Strategic Transformation. Jody tells us that his cool title is really just an alternative to “special projects,” but that he essentially works at the intersection of accounting, IT and property management. His experience working as a controller, business consultant and at several start-ups, as well as a MBA from Emory University, gives Jody a diverse background that makes him a perfect fit for his role at CBL. He’s based at the company’s headquarters in Chattanooga, Tenn., which also happens to be where he grew up. One of Jody’s first projects at the company was to develop a data warehousing system that now provides easy access to transaction records and property data. It also makes report writing a breeze. The next step? Taking access to that data warehouse mobile. Using the BusinessObjects platform and an app called Explorer, Jody told us about how he could easily access information about a Payables check or invoice or a tenants AR balance – while out of the office at lunch and using his iPad. A big fan of Apple’s popular tablet computing device, which he has beta tested extensively for CBL use, Jody says the device has been a good solution for a large company with a small IT department. “We have to pick a platform that’s as standardized as possible. The nice thing with the iPad is you don’t have to worry about ‘which model, which carrier,...