In this episode of The Distribution, host Brandon Sedloff sits down with Wade Madden, CEO of Olympus Property, for a deep dive into operational excellence and culture-driven leadership in multifamily real estate. Wade shares how his background in risk management and entrepreneurship shaped his disciplined yet people-first approach to scaling Olympus into one of the largest vertically integrated owner-operators in the country. He unpacks how being “operator first” translates into performance, why culture is a true driver of alpha, and how technology and AI are augmenting—not replacing—the human element that powers great property management.

They discuss:

• How Olympus scaled to 36,000 units and $9B in assets through a people-first operating model
• The role of servant leadership and company culture in creating lasting operational alpha
• Why bottom-up budgeting and direct feedback from property teams drive better performance
• How Olympus integrates AI and technology to empower, not replace, on-site teams
• Lessons from partnering with the Ritz-Carlton to elevate customer service across the portfolio
• The current state of multifamily fundamentals, supply trends, and the outlook for 2026