On his first day on the job in 1996, Stine arrived in a dark suit and tie, but discovered the farm was a tad more casual. “Toward the end of the day, word was getting back to me that employees were asking if there was a new dress code,” he says. “After that, I left the suits in the closet for trips to L.A. and became more business casual. It's now a rare day that I wear a suit here.”

Plans to develop the ranch beyond its roots quickly ran into some opposition from environmentalists. There ensued a long period of back-and-forth negotiations and court battles, resulting in a 2008 agreement with several prominent environmental organizations that conserves 240,000 acres, some 90% of the Tejon Ranch land.

There were times during those negotiations Stine wondered whether an agreement could be reached. “There were good days and bad days,” he recalls. “There were some days where we would have meetings and afterward say, 'This just isn't going anywhere.' " But quiet diplomacy away from large meeting spotlights and the ability to compromise led to the complex conservation agreements that now protect the majority of Tejon Ranch land, home to numerous wildlife and with historic state significance.

Stine's resume includes creating a master plan for the entire Ranch; successfully entitling Tejon Mountain Village resort and the Tejon Ranch Commerce Center; presiding over the growth in industrial and commercial development at the Commerce Center and its emergence as a prime distribution destination; the forthcoming Outlets at Tejon Ranch, which features 500,000-square-feet of leasable retail space; and negotiating California's most significant private conservation agreement.

Stine sees his legacy as a combination of land planning and long-term business planning. “The primary legacy was an overall business plan that would take advantage of the land assets and ultimately growing them with several different segments,” he says. “There is now a master land plan that I think will form the future of the ranch for a number of decades. That's probably the most important.”

But his proudest accomplishments, he says, are creating 1500 jobs at the Commerce Center, with another 700-900 jobs anticipated at the forthcoming Outlet center; donating land to the Bakersfield National Cemetery for veterans; and developing the master plan for conservation.

Stine's advice for young up-and-coming developers? “I think a young person today could look at a successful developer and say, 'That must be easy.' But it has its ups and downs, and the last four, five years would certainly prove that out. I think it takes a lot of persistence and a conservative capital position, because over-leverage can kill you. That's a large part of the recession we've been through here. So that's the lesson I would want to pass on: the land is good, but the debt can kill you.”