SAN JOSE-If there is a leader more proud of his company's achievements in 2000 than Mark Ritchie, he or she is going to be plenty hard to find. But it all proves that the 45-year-old family-owned brokerage firm can still compete with the big boys inside and outside Silicon Valley.

At its recent annual meeting in San Francisco, Ritchie made several announcements, foremost of which is that the company has joined the CORE Network, a 20-city organization of service providers that serves the office, industrial, and retail sectors. CORE affiliates did over $5 billion in U.S. transaction business last year, and has activities in Canada, Mexico, Asia, and Europe as well.

Mr. Ritchie's top producers, which he calls his 20/20 Club, was also touted, and includes David Becker and David Cebalo of San Francisco/Oakland, and Steve Botto, Pat Cisneros, Egan Kingston, Julie Mercik, Gary Seiden, and Geri Wong of the San Jose office. In fact, Ms. Cisneros received a promotion to Senior Vice President of the San Jose group. “Pat is a star; she has been in the business for 25 years, is a community leader, an unbelievably hard worker, and has an incredibly loyal client base. We intend to keep her around,” said Mr. Ritchie. Last year the 20/20 Club was involved in 334 transactions worth $260 million.