Committee. Steppe began his career in commercial real estate in
1972, and he joined RREEF in 1986 as a partner responsible for
acquisitions in the Western US. In 1990, he took over as head of
RREEF’s client relations and marketing department and, for the
remainder of his tenure, served as a member of the firm’s investment and policy committees in North America. A former chairman
of the Pension Real Estate Association, Steppe was named RREEF’s
managing partner in April 2003 and oversaw strategic direction
and management of the firm’s business throughout North America.
TAD TAUBE
Born in Krakow, Poland, Tad Taube is
founder and chairman of the Woodmont
Cos., 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 a
2013 merger with Cassidy Turley,
Woodmont’s holdings also included BT Commercial, a regional
brokerage firm with 350 agents and 10 offices spanning the San
Francisco Bay Area. In the 1990s Taube expanded his interests to
include some 5,700 acres of land development projects in Placer
and San Benito Counties. After his real estate career, Taube has
become one of Bay Area’s preeminent philanthropists through his
presidency of the Koret Foundation and his creation of Taube
Philanthropies. His philanthropy touches the Stanford community
through his longtime involvement with the Hoover Institution, the
Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, the Stanford
Center for Jewish Studies, Stanford Athletic Board, Stanford Hillel
and the Taube/Koret Campus for Jewish Life.
BILL TOOLEY
Bill Tooley was co-founder and chairman of Tooley & Co. Investment
Builders, developing and managing high-quality office buildings in
California. The firm developed over five million square feet of office
and industrial properties and acquired an additional two million
square feet for investment purposes. Developed properties include
the Wilshire Palisades Building in Santa Monica, winner of the 1988
Urban Land Institute Award of Excellence, Jamboree Center in
Irvine and Wang Tower at the Howard Hughes Center. In 1998, the
Trammell Crow Co. purchased Tooley & Co. and its property management company with over 10 million square feet of managed
properties. Tooley’s current firm, Tooley Investment Co., owns and
manages office and retail properties in the West. Tooley, who has
served on the board of directors of the National Realty Committee
and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, received the
Lifetime Achievement Award from the Los Angeles Chamber of
Commerce Construction Industries Committee in 1992.
ROBERT W. WAGNER
Robert W. Wagner is co-founder and managing director of Sares Regis Group of
Northern California LLC, a privately held
commercial real estate development and
management firm, and Regis Homes Bay
Area LLC, a privately held homebuilder.
Combined with its affiliate Sares Regis
Group of Irvine, the firm has a portfolio
of real estate properties and fee-based
management contracts valued in excess of $4 billion, including
18,000 rental apartments and 15 million square feet of commer-
cial and industrial space. He is also president of Sares Regis
Western States Multifamily Fund, a $200-million apartment
acquisition fund. Prior to forming SRGNC, Wagner was
employed at Prometheus Development Co. Inc. from February
1979 through December 1991, serving as president and chief
executive officer from 1986 through 1991. Before joining
Prometheus, he served as senior loan officer for Citicorp Real
Estate Inc., a subsidiary of Citibank NA in New York and San
Francisco from 1975 through 1978. A member of the Urban
Land Institute, Bay Area Council and Lambda Alpha
International, Wagner also serves on the board of the Swig Co.
and the Policy Advisory Board for the Fisher Center for Real
Estate and Urban Economics at the University of California,
Berkeley.
JAMES C. WATSON
James “Watty” Watson has spent a 35-year
career in the commercial real estate
investment, development and management business, and currently serves as
president and CEO of CT Realty Investors
in Orange County. CT Realty has enjoyed
a 20-year history of successful and profitable real estate investment activities,
acquiring and selling more than $3 billion in real estate. Since 1994 CT has invested in industrial,
office and multifamily properties, as well as distressed commercial debt. Presently, Watson oversees multiple C T-sponsored
and managed funds as well as multiple institutional joint ventures and direct investing partnerships primarily based in
California and Texas. Previously Watson served as president of
the Koll Development Co., where he was responsible for real
estate investment and development in the Western US and
Mexico. Before that, he was president of SDC Investments, successor to the Santa Anita Development Co., which Watson
merged with Koll in 1990.
MARK J. WEINSTEIN
After beginning his career as an attorney, Los Angeles native Mark J.
Weinstein founded MJW Investments
in 1983 when he discovered the potential of real estate investment and development through several successful ventures. Under his leadership MJW has
acquired approximately $8 billion of
real estate holdings including residential, commercial, industrial, student
housing and self-storage properties. MJW Investments, which
specializes in off-market purchases, now owns and manages over
3,000 beds of student housing, five million square feet of commercial and industrial space and over 1,500 apartment units
throughout California, Utah, Washington, Texas, Florida and
Oregon. Weinstein’s passion for, and expertise in, adaptive
reuse and mixed-use development has been a guiding factor in
the company’s growth and success. He spearheaded the development of Santee Village, an 800,000-square-foot, 550-unit,
mixed-use, mixed-income residential community in the Fashion
District of Downtown Los Angeles. Weinstein has also bought
and sold several thousand units in the Mid-Wilshire apartment
market. ◆
