NorCal Life Sciences

Wareham Development is committed to the long-term economic and environmental vitality of our communities. We work closely with city and state agencies to ensure that each project provides maximum benefit to its surrounding community. Unlike many developers who build projects only to sell, we retain ownership of the majority of our developments, many of which have defined the thriving technology corridor between the Bay and Richmond-San Rafael bridges.

As Executive Director of Biocom’s South San Francisco office, Michelle is responsible for building the framework for enabling the creation of a strong, well-connected life science community in the Bay Area. She leads Biocom’s programming and benefits efforts and helps raise awareness of the region’s innovations and accomplishments. Michelle has spent over 20 years in Bay Area life science sales, marketing and business development. She has held leadership roles at a large lab supply distributor and at a biotech tools startup, which fostered her broad view of the Bay Area market, its challenges and its opportunities.

Valentin Doering is a life sciences project execution professional with over 20 years of experience, managing projects in Europe, Asia, and the US. As the Director of Project Engineering & Real Estate, he oversees Astellas Gene Therapies Real Estate Portfolio and ongoing Projects.

Jeff Brink has over 20 years of structural design experience with significant developments up and down the west coast, ranging from Performance Based Design high-rises to mixed-use projects at Candlestick Point, the SF Shipyard, and Yerba Buena Island. Current projects include the City of San Francisco’s new office tower at 1500 Mission Street and the Virgin Hotel adjacent to the Moscone Center. Jeff’s technical expertise at integrating innovative structural systems, combined with his broad understanding of the construction industry, allows architecturally decisive projects to be achieved while still maintaining the project budget.

Gregg Walker is responsible for overseeing DivcoWest’s asset management group, which includes managing the leasing strategy throughout the U.S. for all DivcoWest Clients. Gregg works closely with the CEO on developing new strategic relationships across the country. In addition, Gregg is a member of DivcoWest’s Investment and Executive Committees. Before joining DivcoWest in 2019, Gregg worked as a leasing broker for over 19 years, most recently as a Managing Director for JLL in Silicon Valley, with a particular focus on Life Science and Technology companies. He is a member of CoreNet Global and received his Bachelor of Political Science from the University of Oregon.

Steven Golubchik is Vice Chairman and Head of Capital Markets with Newmark, and leads the Office, Industrial and Life Science Capital Markets Practice Group for Northern California. Previously he was a senior managing director and co-office head for the San Francisco office of HFF, where he was responsible for managing the growth of all the capital markets service lines throughout Northern California in conjunction with overseeing the sale of institutional-grade investment property sales concentrating on office, industrial and life science assets located throughout the western United States. Steven has closed more than $25 billion in transactions encompassing more than 50 million square feet throughout the West Coast during his career.

Rob Zirkle is the founding principal of brick. Under his guidance the brick team brings a rigorous, value driven design process to a wide variety of project types in architecture, interiors and urban design. Rob leads the firm’s initiatives in design, client satisfaction, new project acquisition and company culture. Channeling Rob’s entrepreneurial approach, brick has grown into a thriving 25 person team with $450m of current projects under construction ranging from commercial office, life science, housing and higher education.

James Tefend is a partner at Form4 Architecture in San Francisco, where he also serves as CPO, overseeing project-team leadership and implementation. Tefend has more than 30 years of experience, specializing in comprehensive building-code compliance, planning, site-utilization strategies, construction drawing, and management. Being an advocate of early cooperation with city planning and municipal agencies at the design stage, Tefend’s management approach has expedited successful project entitlements throughout the Bay Area. Tefend designs new buildings as well as adaptive re-use of existing buildings for life-science and tech-industry clients. He holds a BA in Architecture from Washington University in St. Louis and a Master of Architecture from Georgia Institute of Technology. Tefend is a member of the International Code Council.

A name partner of the firm, Anton N. Natsis is Chair of Allen Matkins’ Real Estate Department and is one of the top real estate attorneys in the United States. His practice focuses on development, leasing, purchase and sale, and portfolio investment sales transactions involving office, retail, and industrial projects, as well as arbitrating numerous fair market value disputes, CAM disputes and other significant landlord/tenant disputes. He also has extensive experience in debt, equity, and joint venture workouts, and the purchase of distressed assets and distressed debt. Tony is continually sought out by some of the largest national land owners, such as J.P. Morgan Asset Management, Blackstone Real Estate, Brookfield Properties, HCP, Vornado Realty Trust, Regent Properties, The Irvine Company, Boston Properties, Equity Office Properties, Kilroy Realty, Inc., Beacon Capital Partners, MPG Office Trust, Kamehameha Schools (The Bishop Estate) and Westfield Corporation. He represents many governmental entities, including the LAUSD, State of California, and City of Anaheim. Tony is also frequently retained as counsel for major national office tenants, such as AT&T, Citicorp, the FDIC, AIG, The Walt Disney Company, and the Los Angeles Times. A frequent lecturer and author, Tony is the chief consultant for the California Continuing Education of the Bar Commercial Leasing Series, the legal education reference book on leasing for California attorneys, is an adjunct professor of law at Loyola Law School for a course covering commercial real estate transactions, and has spoken before such national real estate groups as ULI and BOMA. Tony is a founding board member of The Ziman Real Estate Center, which is governed under the joint auspices of the UCLA Anderson School of Business and the UCLA Law School. In the past decade, Tony has closed commercial office leases exceeding 50 million square feet. He has worked on real estate purchase contracts with a total consideration of more than $30 billion and on development transactions with a total consideration in excess of $25 billion. Since 2006, Tony has represented clients in office building portfolio investment sales transactions involving over $75 billion of consideration. One of Tony's most significant transactions is the largest real estate acquisition deal in the history of the United States. He provided extensive real estate services in connection with Blackstone Real Estate's purchase of Equity Office Properties Trust, at that point the largest owner of office space in the U.S. other than the Federal Government, for $43 billion. Subsequently, Blackstone contracted to sell over 50% of the properties it purchased with such sales closing in the first and second quarter of 2007. Tony assisted Blackstone in its acquisition due diligence related to EOP and the subsequent sales of the properties. The transactions related to this deal included Maguire Properties' purchase of Blackstone/EOP in Orange County for $2 billion, Irvine Company's purchase of Blackstone/EOP in San Diego for $1 billion, Morgan Stanley's purchase of Blackstone/EOP in San Francisco for $2.5 billion, and Beacon Capital Partners’ purchase of Blackstone/EOP Seattle for $6.3 billion.

Laura has over 17 years’ experience in all facets of real estate development within the office, industrial and multifamily housing sectors, including acquisitions, due diligence, leasing/marketing, financing, entitlements and project/construction management. Laura formerly served as the Director of Development for a San-Francisco-based development firm, where she completed a 110,000 square-foot two-building industrial facility for the City of San Francisco, earning a City and national award for best private-public partnered project. Other project highlights include the successful entitlement of a 100-unit and a 230-unit condominium project in San Francisco in 2016 with full community support, the design and entitlement of an 86,000sf Class A office building in the Stanford Research Park and an historic renovation of a 40,000sf office suite in the Ferry Building in San Francisco. She previously worked in community development banking and municipal housing bond finance. Laura has a passion for green building and served on the Board of Directors of the Northern California Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Virginia with degrees in Political and Social Thought and Urban Planning and holds an MBA with a certificate in Real Estate from U.C. Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

Enrique Ceniceros has over 31 years of experience as an architect and laboratory planner, and more than 11 years of experience as a science and technology leader. His attention to detail and technical expertise makes him a natural leader for design teams, consultants, and owner user groups alike. His clients include universities, biopharmaceutical facilities, R&D laboratories, developers, aerospace facilities, and manufacturing groups. Enrique is passionate about the Life Sciences industry and its growth in the Greater Los Angeles Area and all of Southern California. He spearheaded the creation of the International Institute of Sustainable Laboratories (I2SL) in Los Angeles and serves as the chapter’s first president; he believes the life science community needs more platforms to network and collaborate. He was also named one of San Diego's Life Sciences top 50 professionals in 2022 and 2023.

A Principal at MBH Architects, a multi-disciplinary architectural practice, Ryan McNulty has an innate ability to unify project stakeholders to create successful projects with meaning and respect to their local context. He fosters a collaborative vision and design philosophy that yields successful solutions for project partners and end-users. He is known for his ability to see the thirty-thousand-foot view of projects while using his technical expertise to closely manage every detail. This holistic design approach informs the decision-making process and allows effective communication at every stage, making him an asset to MBH’s broad array of project types, from workspace and labs to multi-family and hospitality projects. Ryan brings deep experience with complex structures, managing client goals, community hearings, and stakeholder coordination. He helped manage the mixed-use development of Visitation Valley in San Francisco and is currently principal-in-charge of a confidential residential development in New York City. He builds relationships that lead to cohesive, adaptable project teams to serve stakeholder needs and integrate the project in its environment.

Kirk has 35 years of experience in the commercial real estate industry in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 1995 he founded Woodstock Development Inc. Prior to founding Woodstock Development, Kirk was a vice president of Coldwell Banker Commercial (now CBRE). Kirk oversees all of the company’s operations including Corporate Services, Acquisitions and Development, Property Management and Asset Management. Kirk is a graduate of Santa Clara University and he is the former Chair of the Board of Regents and a Trustee. Kirk is a past Director of Borel Private Bank & Trust where he chaired the Director’s Loan Committee. Kirk is also past Board Chair of Peninsula Family Service in San Mateo and remains on their Board as an Honorary Life member. Kirk was born and raised in San Francisco and attended St Ignatius Prep. He currently resides in Hillsborough (suburb of San Francisco) with his wife. They have 5 grown children.

Real Estate and Finance professional with 15+ years of progressive experience across Corporate Real Estate, Life Science Real Estate, Retail Real Estate, Strategy and Investment Banking. Results-driven leader with experience developing and executing global strategies.

Mike Futrell began serving as City Manager of South San Francisco, California, in April 2014, bringing broad executive experience in local, state and federal government. He was Chief Administrative Officer for the City of Baton Rouge, Louisiana; served on staff in the United States Senate; and was an elected member of the Louisiana House of Representatives and of the Baton Rouge City Council. He served as a submarine officer in the U.S. Navy and rose to the rank of Navy Captain in the Navy Reserves. He previously practiced law with a private firm and was Executive Vice President of a public utility company in Hawaii. Mike holds a bachelor's degree in Business/Public Administration and a Juris Doctorate degree from Louisiana State University, a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and completed the Stanford Graduate School of Business Learn-Engage-Accelerate-Disrupt (LEAD) Certificate program in Corporate Innovation.

Ken Holman is a Project Executive at MAI Construction, Inc., a leading Bay Area commercial general contractor. Working in the construction industry for over 30 years, Ken has extensive experience focusing on life science, high tech, office, education, and industrial projects. As the Project Executive, Ken works with his team of Project Managers in all aspects of preconstruction and construction with estimating, subcontract negotiation, reporting, scheduling, accounting, quality, safety, profit projections and all day-to-day challenges. He shares his expertise and guidance with our internal team, and coordinates the interface between the client, field operations, subcontractors, and the design team. Ken’s strong communication skills, collaborative leadership style, and proficiency in construction management lead to the successful completion of projects and strong long term relationships with clients.

Rob is an architect and Principal with HOK, based in the San Francisco studio. As Regional Leader of Science and Technology, Rob oversees projects between San Francisco and Seattle in the private and public sector, ranging from tenant improvements to new ground-up speculative and build-to-suit R&D buildings to multi-acre corporate campuses. Clients include biotech and technology companies at every stage of growth from early venture-backed to multi-national Fortune 500s, as well as globally recognized academic research universities. Current projects include the 10x Genomics Operations Building in Pleasanton, The Freenome headquarters in Brisbane, Longfellow’s San Mateo Bay Center in San Mateo and Redwood LIFE in Redwood Shores, BioMed Realty’s Lincoln Centre Phase 2 in Foster City, and UC Berkeley’s Heathcock Hall Chemistry Research Building. Rob lives in Lafayette where you might find him on the sports fields with his 3 children when he’s not rooting for his Cal Bears, 49ers, Giants, or Warriors.