Collectively, these industry titans oversee office portfolios totaling hundreds of millions of square feet, some of which they developed and some of which they acquired. Whether they lead private equity firms or REITS, the two dozen individuals profiled here each have distinguished themselves as legends in this sector. We introduced the first two groups Tuesday and yesterday. Here are the final eight individuals that Real Estate Forum has selected as Office Icons.—With reporting by Paul Bubny, Rayna Katz, Miriam Lamey, Antoinette Martin, Carrie Rossenfeld and Amy Wolff Sorter
Scott Rechler
Scott Rechler is CEO and chairman of RXR Realty LLC, a multi-billion dollar private real estate firm formed following the sale of Reckson Associates Realty Corp. to SL Green in 2007. He served as CEO and chairman of the board during Reckson's growth throughout New York City, Long Island, New Jersey, Westchester and Connecticut. Rechler was the architect of Reckson's $300-million IPO in 1995 and $6.5-billion sale in 2007, generating a 715% total return to shareholders. Since its formation in January 2007, Rechler has led RXR in accumulating a portfolio with a gross value of approximately $5.5 billion, comprised of 106 properties encompassing over 18 million square feet. He is vice chairman of the board of directors for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and a member of the Real Estate Roundtable's board of directors, as well as co-chair of that group's political action committee.
Steven Roth
Steve Roth has been chairman of Vornado Realty Trust since 1981. One of the largest owners and managers of commercial real estate in the US, Vornado has a portfolio of over 100 million square feet of office and retail properties, primarily located in the New York City and Metro Washington DC regions. Roth is co-founder and a managing partner of Interstate Properties and chairman and CEO of Alexander's Inc, a director of J. C. Penney Co. and a former director of Toys “R” Us. Roth was repeatedly named one of the World's 30 Most Respected CEOs by Barron's magazine. A past chair of NAREIT, he's been a trustee of the Intrepid Museum Foundation, Jewish Theological Seminary of America, New York University School of Medicine Foundation and Whitney Museum of American Art. Roth is also a trustee of Dartmouth College, his alma mater.
Douglas W. Shorenstein
Having joined the Shorenstein family business in 1983, Doug Shorenstein became chairman and CEO in 1995. During his tenure, the firm evolved from a San Francisco-focused real estate operating company into a national investment, development and management company, with a portfolio of just under 24 million square feet. Outside of the firm, Shorenstein is on the board of the Environmental Defense Fund, the executive council of UCSF Medical Center, the executive committee of the Real Estate Roundtable and the advisory board of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. He's past chairman of the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and was on the advisory board of the Yale School of Management and Vanderbilt University. In 2011, Shorenstein was inducted into the Bay Area Council's Bay Area Business Hall of Fame.
Robert Speyer
Rob Speyer was named co-CEO of Tishman Speyer Properties in 2008 and continues to serve as president of the global firm with a portfolio of more than 90 million square feet across four continents. Domestically, that portfolio includes such iconic office properties as Rockefeller Center and the Hearst Tower in Midtown Manhattan. Earlier this year, Speyer began his term as chairman of the Real Estate Board of New York, becoming the third generation of his family to serve in that role as well as the association's youngest-ever chairman. He's also founder and co-chair of the Committee to Save New York, a coalition of business, labor and civic groups promoting fiscal reform for the state.
Gerard H. Sweeney
As CEO and trustee of Brandywine since 1994, Gerard Sweeney has overseen the firm's growth from four properties and a total market capitalization of less than $5 million to more than 33 million square feet and a total market capitalization of approximately $4.6 billion. Before becoming president of Brandywine in 1998, Sweeney served as VP of developer LCOR Inc. and held several roles at Linpro Co., including financial VP and general partner. A member of the Real Estate Roundtable, chairman of the Schuylkill River Development Corp. and WHYY, Sweeney is co-chair of the World Class Greater Philadelphia Initiative, co-founder and co-CEO of Bonomo Turkish Taffy LLC and serves as a board member of several other Philadelphia-based organizations.
James A. Thomas
James Thomas is chairman of the board, president and chief executive officer of Thomas Properties Group Inc. He also founded predecessor company TPG and served in the same roles from 1996 to the closing of its IPO in October 2004. Thomas' commitment to the community can be seen in his devotion to the arts and his efforts to improve the quality of life in metropolitan Los Angeles. He's chairman of FAST (Fixing Angelenos Stuck in Traffic) and serves on the board of directors of the Townhall Los Angeles, SOS Coral Trees, Center Theatre Group, and the National Advisory Council of the Cleveland Marshall School of Law in Cleveland, among other organizations.
Roger A. Waesche Jr.
Roger Waesche is president and CEO of Corporate Office Properties Trust. He was elected trustee in April 2012 and has served in several positions throughout the company. Waesche took on the role of president in September 2010, after holding the position of EVP since January 2004 and the position of SVP from September 1998 through December 2003. He was COPT's chief operating officer from August 2006 through September 2011, after serving as CFO since March 1999. Waesche has more than 25 years of real estate investment, operations and financing experience. He has obtained more than $1.5 billion of real estate and corporate financing and has been directly responsible for or overseen more than $2 billion of investments. He is a board member of the Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore and a member of the board of sponsors of the Sellinger School of Business and Management at Loyola University, MD.
Mortimer B. Zuckerman
A world-famous media mogul, Mortimer B. Zuckerman is also the executive chairman of Boston Properties, which he co-founded in 1970. Zuckerman is chairman and editor-in-chief of US News & World Report and chairman and publisher of the New York Daily News. He serves as a trustee of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, and he is a member of the Bank of America Global Wealth & Investment Management Committee, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Washington Institute for Near East Studies and the International Institute of Strategic Studies. He is vice chair of the International Peace Institute and the Fund for Public Schools; and serves as co-chair of the Bipartisan Policy Center's Cyber Security Task Force. Zuckerman is a former associate professor of planning at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and lecturer at Yale University. Additionally, Zuckerman has been awarded the Commandeur De L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the Government of France, the Lifetime Achievement Award from Guild Hall and the Gold Medal from the American Institute of Architecture in New York.
This is an HTML version of a story that ran in the June issue of Real Estate Forum. To see the article in its original format, click here.
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