ROI Influencers Women In Business 2024: Top 50
Gretchen Wilcox
President
G.S. Wilcox & Co.
Here is the most incredible statistic of all the incredible statistics around Gretchen Wilcox and her firm.
When she founded G.S. Wilcox & Co. in 1994, Wilcox became the first woman in the country to open a commercial real estate mortgage banking firm. Thirty years later, she still holds that singular distinction.
One can only wonder why.
G.S. Wilcox has been an overwhelming success. It has financed more than $6.5 billion in commercial real estate, which includes more than 60 million square feet of industrial properties, more than 10,000 apartments and other retail properties and income-producing real estate.
The firm also represents and services over $1.6 billion of commercial real estate mortgage loans for 18 life insurance company’s investment portfolios.
And, while her efforts can be seen nationally — particularly in the life insurance sector — Wilcox is best known as a force in New Jersey.
It’s the reason she is in various halls of fame, with NAIOP New Jersey being the latest. And the reason she is No. 1 in the 2024 ROI Influencers: Women in Business list.
Looking ahead, there’s no reason — other than time on the golf course — to think she is going to slow down anytime soon.
Wilcox remains actively involved in all aspects of the business and guides her team toward achieving any objectives their clients set forth. In recent years, that team has included her two adult children, Bridget Wilcox and Wesley Wilcox.
Family has long been a center of attention for Wilcox. In 1998, she created the Daniel J. Wilcox Memorial Fund, in honor of her late husband, to send children to the Daniel J. Wilcox Camp Hope in partnership with Jersey Battered Women’s Service.
It’s all part of an incredible life for an incredible New Jersey icon.
Previous No. 1s
A look at those who previously were honored with the top spot in the ROI Influencers: Women in Business list:
2023: Amy Mansue, CEO, Inspira Health
2022: Kristin Peck, CEO, Zoetis
2021: Judith Persichilli, Commissioner of Health, State of N.J.
