Stanford Real Estate Hall of Fame Inductees
Current Inductees
Chip Conley ('82, MBA '84)
Rebel hospitality entrepreneur and New Your Times bestselling author, Chip Conley is a leader at the forefront of the sharing economy. At age 26 he founded Joie de Vivre Hospitality (JdV), transforming one inner-city motel into the second largest boutique hotel brand in America. After running his company as CEO for 24 years, he sold it and soon the young founders of Airbnb asked him to help transform their promising start-up into the world’s leading hospitality brand. Chip served as Airbnb’s Head of Global Hospitality and Strategy for four years and today acts as the company’s Strategic Advisor for Hospitality and Leadership. His five books include PEAK and EMOTIONAL EQUATIONS and are inspired by the theories of transformation and meaning by famed psychologists Abraham Maslow and Viktor Frankl. In his new book, [email protected]: The Making of a Modern Elder (September 2018), Chip shares his experiences – as both mentor and unexpected intern – at Airbnb. He is the founder of Fest300 (part of Everfest), San Francisco’s annual “Celebrity Pool Toss” that has raised millions for families in the neighborhood where he opened his first hotel, and the Hotel Hero Awards that shine a light on outstanding line level employees. Chip is a recipient of hospitality’s highest honor, the Pioneer Award, and holds a BA and MBA from Stanford University, and an honorary doctorate in psychology from Saybrook University. He serves on the boards of the Burning Man Project and the Esalen Institute, where the Conley Library bears his name.
Susan Meaney ('82)
Susan Meaney is a Managing Director at Makena Capital Management and a member of the firm’s management committee.
She has been with the firm since its founding in 2006; she has been responsible for managing the firm’s real estate investments totaling over $3 billion as well as contributing to the real assets portfolio. Makena is a global, multi-asset class investment manager with $20 billion of capital under management. The firm offers a range of pooled investment vehicles designed to achieve long-term capital appreciation.
Prior to joining Makena Capital, Susan was the Director of Real Estate and Real Assets Investments for the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation where she was responsible for the investment and oversight of the foundation’s real assets portfolio.
She served as a managing director at the Stanford Management Company from 1993-2001 where she was responsible for the development and management of 700 acres of Stanford University’s commercial real estate holdings and the development of 1 million square feet of office space.
She currently serves as an overseer of the Tuck School at Dartmouth and as a member of the Stanford Bing Overseas Study Program Advisory Council. She has recently served on the Dartmouth Investment Committee as well as the Investment Committee of the Hewlett Foundation.
Susan earned her bachelor's degree with honors from Stanford University in 1982 and earned an MBA from the Tuck School at Dartmouth in 1986.
Previous Inductees
Fred Allen
Senior Partner
Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis
Fred is one of the premier real estate and finance attorneys in America. He is a Founder and the Senior Partner of Allen Matkins, a full-service business and litigation law firm with 225 attorneys in five offices in California. For 45 years, he has been counsel to many of the nation’s most prominent development and investment companies in connection with hundreds of successful major projects in California, Hawaii, throughout the country, Asia and the Pacific Rim. He is active in Urban Land Institute (ULI), Real Estate Roundtable in Washington D.C., and Board of Overseers of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. After Stanford, Fred was a Naval Officer aboard an aircraft carrier before attending law school at UC Hastings.
Peter Bedford
Owner
Bedford Investments
Bob Burke
Co-Founder & Former Chairman of the Board
AMB
Malin Burnham
Vice Chairman
Cushman & Wakefield
Malin Burnham has been Chairman of John Burnham & Company Insurance and Burnham Real Estate and has remained involved since 1949. In 2008, Burnham Real Estate was acquired by Cushman & Wakefield. In addition to his involvement with the Burnham Companies, he has been active as a board member of several major corporations. His present involvements include: Board Member of Sanford|Burnham Medical Research Institute, UCSD Foundation, Rady School of Management, SDSU Campanile Foundation and the USS Midway Museum, and is Chair of the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine. Mr. Burnham served as Trustee of Stanford University from 1985 to 1995. He co-established the Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate at University of San Diego.
Chip Conley
Strategic Advisor for Hospitality and Leadership
Airbnb
Rebel hospitality entrepreneur and bestselling author, Chip Conley is a leader at the forefront of the sharing economy. At age 26 he founded Joie de Vivre Hospitality (JdV), transforming one inner-city motel into the second largest boutique hotel brand in America. After running his company as CEO for 24 years, he sold it and soon the young founders of Airbnb asked him to help transform their promising start-up into the world’s leading hospitality brand. Chip served as Airbnb’s Head of Global Hospitality and Strategy for four years and today acts as the company’s Strategic Advisor for Hospitality and Leadership. His five books include PEAK and EMOTIONAL EQUATIONS and are inspired by the theories of transformation and meaning by famed psychologists Abraham Maslow and Viktor Frankl. In his new book, [email protected]: The Making of a Modern Elder (September 2018), Chip shares his experiences – as both mentor and unexpected intern – at Airbnb. He is the founder of Fest300 (part of Everfest), San Francisco’s annual “Celebrity Pool Toss” that has raised millions for families in the neighborhood where he opened his first hotel, and the Hotel Hero Awards that shine a light on outstanding line level employees. Chip is a recipient of hospitality’s highest honor, the Pioneer Award, and holds a BA and MBA from Stanford University, and an honorary doctorate in psychology from Saybrook University. He serves on the boards of the Burning Man Project and the Esalen Institute, where the Conley Library bears his name.
Sam Freshman
Chairman
Standard Management Company
Sam Freshman is Board Chairman of Standard Management Company which performs real estate acquisitions, bridge finance, and property management. Active in real estate investment for 60 years as an attorney and investor. He has been an expert witness in real estate, legal matters, finance, lecturer at the Stanford, UCLA and USC law and business schools, chairman of a bank, title company and a theatre exhibitor. Author of books and over 20 published articles, Mr. Freshman is working on a series on saving entitled, “The Smartest Way to Save,” and “The Smartest Way to Save More” about becoming rich on a modest income. His book “Principles of Real Estate Syndication” is considered the bible on the subject. Sam received a Stanford BA (pre-legal, 1954) and a JD (1956). Sam is also the Founding Chairman of Stanford Professionals in Real Estate (SPIRE).
Don Koll
Founder
The Koll Company
Visionary real estate icon Donald M. Koll founded The Koll Company in Newport Beach in 1962 as a regional general construction firm. Under his leadership, the company grew into a commercial real estate giant responsible for the development of more than 90 million square feet of office, industrial and retail space throughout the Western United States, Mexico and the Pacific Rim. In addition to its development activities, The Koll Company expanded to include separate entities focused on commercial property management, golf resort community development and large-scale general construction.
With a concentration on major western U.S. markets, The Koll Company currently owns and manages over 6 million square feet of existing multi-tenant, light industrial and suburban/garden office space in California, Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Colorado and Utah as well as in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
An example of Mr. Koll’s ability to successfully shift strategic gears during his illustrious career is Koll Management Services (KMS), The Koll Company’s former property management and real estate services arm. Beginning as an extension of Koll’s development operations, KMS grew to become one of the nation’s largest commercial property managers with over 185 million square feet under management and some 3,000 employees in 300 offices across the U.S. and in Asia. In a highly successful strategic move, KMS was taken public in 1991, fueling an expansion which resulted in 30 acquisitions nationwide before its sale to what is now CBRE in 1997.
Mr. Koll served as chairman for several affiliated companies before he passed away in 2011. The companies included Koll Construction and Koll Resorts International, and he was a partner in Koll Center Travel and Koll Bren Schreiber Realty Advisors, a real estate investment advisory firm, which manages approximately $2.5 billion in assets. He was also on the Board of Directors of The Irvine Company and Fidelity National Title. He served on the Board of Directors of CB Richard Ellis, Grubb & Ellis and Wells Fargo Bank. In 1990, Koll was selected as one of the top 25 CEOs for the Decade by California Business Magazine, and in 2007 was presented with the real estate industry’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Mr. Koll is a past presidential appointee to the Board of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the American Red Cross. He also served as a pilot in the U.S. Air Force.
Mr. Koll earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Stanford University.
Robert J. "Bob" Lowe
Founder & Chairman of the Board
Lowe
Bob Lowe is Founder and Chairman of Lowe, a privately owned diversified national real estate company active in commercial, hospitality and residential property investment, development and management. Headquartered in Los Angeles, the firm maintains regional offices in Denver, Irvine, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington D.C. Over the past 46 years, Lowe Enterprises has developed, acquired or managed more than $28 billion of real estate assets. Through its hospitality management affiliate, the firm oversees the management of more than 17,000 hotel rooms/units nationwide.
Bob is a Trustee and past Chairman of the Board of the Los Angeles Metropolitan YMCA; Chairman Emeritus of the Real Estate Roundtable; Life Trustee and Chairman Emeritus of the Board of Claremont McKenna College; Chairman and Co-Founder of the Lowe Institute of Political Economy of Claremont McKenna College; and Director of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. Bob is past Chairman of the New Los Angeles Marketing Partnership; past member of the California Economy Strategy Panel; and past Director and member of the Executive Committee of the Economic Development Corporation of Los Angeles County. Bob's honors include City of Hope "Spirit of Life" Award; National Entrepreneur of the Year for Real Estate and Construction; Los Angeles Mayor's "City of Angels" Award; "Distinguished Citizen Award" presented by the Boy Scouts of America and the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce Distinguished Business Leader Award and Bob was recently inducted into the Stanford University Real Estate Hall of Fame.
Bob earned a BA, Cum Laude, from Claremont McKenna College and an MBA from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University.
Bowen "Buzz" McCoy
Buzz McCoy was a General Partner of Morgan Stanley where he developed and ran the commercial real estate finance unit for many years. In 2000 he was named a “20th Century Icon” in commercial real estate by National Real Estate Investor for his work integrating commercial real estate finance into the capital market system. He has served as Executive-in-Residence at both the Stanford and Notre Dame Graduate Schools of Business; and as Adjunct Professor, Pacific School of Religion, UCLA Anderson School of Management and the Graduate Real Estate Program at USC. He has published ninety magazine articles on the subjects of business ethics or real estate finance, and he has published two books. He currently spends his time as a real estate counselor, teacher and philanthropist.
Susan Meaney
Managing Director
Makena Capital Management
Susan Meaney is a Managing Director at Makena Capital Management and a member of the firm’s Management Committee.
Susan has been with the firm since its founding in 2006 where she has been responsible for managing the firm’s real estate investments totaling over $3 billion as well as contributing to the real assets portfolio. Makena is a global, multi-asset class investment manager with $18 billion of capital under management. The firm offers a range of pooled investment vehicles designed to achieve long term capital appreciation.
Prior to joining Makena Capital, Susan was the Director of Real Estate and Real Assets Investments for the William & Flora Hewlett Foundation where she was responsible for the investment and oversight of the Foundation’s real assets portfolio.
She served as a Managing Director at the Stanford Management Company from 1993-2001 where she was responsible for the development and management of 700 acres of Stanford University’s commercial real estate holdings and the development of one million square feet of office space.
She currently serves as an Overseer of the Tuck School at Dartmouth and a member of the Stanford Bing Overseas Study Program Advisory Council. She has recently served on the Dartmouth Investment Committee as well as the Investment Committee of the Hewlett Foundation.
Susan graduated from Stanford University in 1982 with an AB, with Honors and earned an MBA from The Tuck School at Dartmouth in 1986.
Henry Segerstrom
Managing Partner
C.J. Segerstrom & Sons
Southern California icon Henry Segerstrom (’46, MBA ’48) built C.J. Segerstrom and Sons into a real estate development and management firm anchored by the world renowned 2.8 million sf shopping center South Coast Plaza, and over 2 million square feet of office and commercial space. Mr. Segerstrom’s commitment to philanthropy and the community is evidenced by the 14 acre Segerstrom Center for the Arts that includes Segerstrom Hall, world class environmental sculpture, the future home of the Orange County Museum of Art, and the Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall. Mr. Segerstrom played a vital role in establishing the Center for Social Innovation at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. In 2008 the Stanford Graduate School of Business presented Mr. Segerstrom with the Ernest C. Arbuckle award for lifetime achievement.
Learn more about Henry at www.henrysegerstrom.com.
Tad Taube
Founder and Chairman
Woodmont Companies
Tad Taube is Founder and Chairman of Woodmont Companies, a diversified real estate investment and management organization. Since its founding in 1963, the Company has been involved in the acquisition, development, and management of income properties exceeding $5 billion in valuation. Until its acquisition by Cushman Wakefield in 2015, Woodmont’s holdings included BT/Cassidy-Turley. He is a founder and advisory board chair of the Taube Center for Jewish Studies. He is a past member of the Board of Overseers of the Hoover Institution, and was founder and past chairman of the advisory board of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR). In 2014, Hoover Institution awarded Taube the Uncommon Commitment Award; and Stanford’s President John L. Hennessy awarded him the Remarkable Generosity Acknowledgment. His involvement in Stanford Athletics includes his family’s gift to Stanford’s Taube Family Tennis Stadium, Stanford’s Football Stadium, and his endowment for the Taube Director of Men’s Tennis. He formerly served as Chair of the Stanford Athletic Board. Tad is a recognized philanthropist having served for 32 years as President of the Koret Foundation and currently serves his global philanthropic endeavors through Taube Philanthropies. In 2018, Tad received an honorary doctorate from Jagiellonian University in Krakow for his work, during the past two decades, rebuilding Jewish cultural and academic life throughout Poland. He is the only philanthropist among the four non-academics—including the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa, and President Woodrow Wilson—who have received this honor. Tad Taube’s father earned a Doctor of Law from Jagiellonian University, which was awarded in the same renaissance room as Tad's honorary doctorate in 1928, 90 years earlier.
William Tooley
Chairman
Tooley Investment Company
Bill was co-founder and Chairman of Tooley & Company Investment Builders, developing and managing high-quality office buildings in California, including the Wilshire Palisades Building in Santa Monica, winner of 1988 Urban Land Institute Award of Excellence. In 1998, the Trammell Crow Company purchased Tooley & Company. Tooley Investment Company owns and manages office and retail properties in the West. Bill served on the Board of Directors of the National Realty Committee, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, and in 1992, received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce Construction Industries Committee. In 2013, Bill was inducted into the Stanford Real Estate Hall of Fame. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Stanford and an MBA from Harvard.
William Wilson III
Co-Founder
Webcor Builders
William “Bill” Wilson III ('58) was one of the most successful and preeminent commercial developers over the last four decades in the San Francisco Bay Area. Mr. Wilson cut a legendary and singular path through Bay Area commercial real estate. Not only was he a prolific developer of some of the region’s signature buildings, but he also founded some of its noteworthy commercial real estate companies. Among his most well-known projects are the Oracle Inc. world headquarters in Redwood Shores; Foundry Square, The Gap Inc. headquarters; the Ferry Building renovation in San Francisco; 10 Almaden Blvd. in San Jose; the Pruneyard in Campbell; 48 Stockton Street in San Francisco; and the Franklin/Templeton Group campus in San Mateo. Mr. Wilson also founded San Francisco development company Wilson Meany Sullivan, San Mateo’s Webcor Builders and, in 1978, William Wilson & Associates. In the ensuing 20 years, the firm developed 33 properties with more than seven million square feet of offices, most of it on the San Francisco peninsula. In addition to Oracle and Franklin Templeton, company clients included IBM, Wells Fargo, Visa and Bank of America. The company merged with real estate investment trust Cornerstone Properties Inc. in 1998 in a $1.81 billion transaction. Cornerstone later merged with Equity Office Properties Trust Inc., the largest publicly traded office company in the country. Mr. Wilson served on the EOP board of directors alongside Sam Zell, its idiosyncratic leader, until 2004. EOP was sold to The Blackstone Group in 2007 for $39 billion.
Mr. Wilson was a private investor and functioned in an advisory capacity to Wilson Meany Sullivan before he passed away in 2013. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the Presidio Trust, a Trustee of both the California Academy of Sciences and The Lawrenceville School, and an Emeritus Director of the Stanford University Department of Athletics Investment Fund. Mr. Wilson received a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from Stanford University.