Gerry Neugent, president and CEO of Knapp Properties Inc., is the Great Western Bank Commercial Real Estate Professional of the Year.

Gerry Neugent

The award will be presented April 22 at the Business Record’s2015 CRE Trends & Issues Forum. It honors a CRE professional for professional accomplishments and community engagement. This is the first year the award has been given.

Neugent, who recently was appointed as the first director of the Iowa Events Center Hotel Corp., the nonprofit organization that will own and manage a $101 million hotel near the events center complex, has emerged as a highly regarded business and community leader. He is the current chairman of the Greater Des Moines Partnership.

Neugent joined Knapp Properties in 1993 as president and chief operating officer after practicing real estate and property law at two prominent Des Moines firms. Last year, he was named CEO.

“I have often said when my Uncle Bill Knapp hired Gerry Neugent, it was the best decision he ever made,” Knapp Properties Chairman William Knapp II said in a nominating letter.