One prominent real estate investor shocked some audience members at a conference on Wednesday. : One prominent real estate investor shocked some audience members at a conference on Wednesday when he used vulgar language to describe how he works with and promotes women within the industry. "I never promoted a woman because she was a woman," Sam Zell, chairman of Equity Group Investments, said at the REITweek investor conference hosted by Nareit in New York. "I never demoted a woman because she was a woman.