Silicon Valley: Hot Projects

Scott is a licensed architect with over 30 years of experience in Global Corporate Real Estate, including managing and leading all aspects of the CRE lifecycle; portfolio and workplace research, planning and design, acquisition, implementation, and operations throughout the Americas, Asia, and Europe. Scott has developed and managed innovative and effective work environments, meeting the needs of the business and supporting key work activities of employees, resulting in the savings of hundreds of millions of dollars. Scott is currently the Senior Director of Global Real Estate at Adobe in San Jose, California. In this role, he is responsible for all real estate transactions, project delivery, portfolio investment strategies, and employee experience (design, food, events, and wellness). Prior to this role at Adobe, Scott was the Director of Real Estate Strategy and Planning at T-Mobile. Scott was also the VP of Enterprise Solutions at Better Workplace, and held a variety of positions in the corporate real estate group at Sun Microsystems.

Best Advice: Surround yourself with good people and things tend to work out. Craig has 23 years of experience in the construction industry and is currently leading XL’s structures market segment. With projects like the Salesforce Tower in San Francisco, the Highland Hospital MOB and Acute Care Tower in Oakland, and numerous projects for the Cal State and UC system under his belt, Craig brings a breadth of experience to the role. While he truly enjoys the building process, his favorite part of the job is seeing people grow.

Aaron’s diverse, global experience includes design for mixed-use developments, corporate office and residential towers, arts and entertainment facilities, convention and conference centers and urban master plans. His passion is to bring together different disciplines that leverage innovative structural engineering, building systems and cutting edge technology to solve complex problems. He welcomes interaction with clients, planning agencies and community groups to keep the delivery of large projects on track and maintain the project vision. The goal in all of his work is to create inspiring works of architecture and urban design that resonate with client needs, a sense of place and the social context.

Michael Van Every is the President and Managing Partner of Republic Urban Properties, the Bay Area flagship of the Republic Family of Companies. Mr. Van Every works with Federal, State, and Local governments on the creation and development of ‘smart growth’ projects, such as master-planned communities near transportation hubs; urban mixed-use projects near major employment centers; and innovative, public-private partnerships. The Republic Family of Companies is known for developing institutional-quality real estate throughout the United States, from land development, to historic adaptive reuse, to shopping malls. In his 25 years of working experience representing major institutional and private real estate developers in the greater Bay Area, Van Every has earned the reputation as a man with the leadership, the knowledge, the experience, and tenacity to see complicated projects through from land acquisition to completion. Under Van Every’s leadership, RUP has gained national attention for its Transit Oriented Development (TOD) projects at key transit stations working as the premier public-private partner with many transit authorities across California. Since 2006, as the managing partner of RUP, Van Every has been involved with the planning, financing, construction, and delivery of 1,238 multifamily units and 145,000 square feet of mixed-use commercial space. In addition to the multifamily pipeline, RUP has approximately 380 hotels rooms, 151,000 square feet of office, and 120,000 square feet of retail in various stages of development. The estimated market value among projects is projected at $1.5 billion in value. A third-generation San Jose native, Van Every holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from California State University at Fresno. Van Every is an active member of San Jose Rotary Club as well as the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. He also serves as a Board Member on Santa Clara County Catholic Charities. Michael is married and lives with his wife Jennifer and Jacob in the Willow Glen Neighborhood of San Jose.

For over 30 years, Paul Zeger has been the definitive source of information for new construction sales and marketing in the Bay Area. His leadership in identifying and capitalizing on residential development opportunities is unparalleled. Paul’s client relationships include some of the most successful real estate development firms on the west coast – TMG Partners, Emerald Fund, Lennar Urban and Wilson Meany to name a few. Paul believes in making commitments to his clients, and building trust by delivering on his commitments. Paul earned a bachelor’s degree in Economics at Colgate University and a Masters in Business Administration from the Darden School at the University of Virginia.

David Hart is the President and CEO of Steinberg Hart, an international Architecture, Interiors, and Planning firm headquartered in Los Angeles. Founded in 1953, the firm’s seven offices focus on higher education, urban mixed-use residential, performing and visual arts, hospitality, government, civic and commercial projects. David developed Steinberg Hart’s reputation as a leader in Higher Education through the design of inspirational, sustainable projects that shape the way students learn and socialize for institutions such as Stanford, UCLA, and USC. He now leads the firm’s large-scale mixed-use practice in urban cores, with projects such as Los Angeles’ Vision on Wilshire and San Jose’s Miro Towers. Leveraging his experience working with public agencies, institutions, builders, and developers, he works to advance complex public-private-partnership projects with an emphasis on responsible density, affordability, community impact and value creation for clients. As a thought leader, David speaks regularly at conferences both nationally and locally, including Greenbuild, P3C, SCUP, Educause, and NACUBO, and he has been tapped by publications such as GlobeSt, Monocle, the Silicon Valley Business Journal, and Bloomberg CityLab for his insights on design and urban issues of our time. David serves on the ULI Urban Revitalization Council, the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics Policy Advisory Board at the University of California at Berkeley, the Los Angeles Business Council Board of Directors, and the Silicon Valley Leadership Group.

Michael Dern, AIA is the Principal of Dern Architecture + Development, an architecture led design + build firm. His experience throughout the San Francisco Bay Area with mixed-use and urban infill developments, multi-stakeholder community-based projects, and commercial interiors provides a proactive, collaborative solution-oriented leadership to Michael’s clients. While primarily in architecture and design, the firm’s experience provides project management and construction management. Michael has been part of the early residential high-rise developments including The 88 in downtown San Jose as an Associate at HKS Architects, and has helped architecture firms with the Waverly in Foster City and a hospitality project by Homewood Suites in north San Jose. Dern Architecture + Development as architect of record recently completed the Lyric for Laconia Development and helped Essex Property Trust through construction of the Agora in Walnut Creek. Michael Dern is the 2018 President of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Silicon Valley Chapter, and holds a Bachelors of Architecture with a minor in Construction Management from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.

Steve Elliott joined Stanford University’s Real Estate Office in August 2005 as Managing Director of Development Projects and has been responsible for developments including the Rosewood Hotel & Office Development in Menlo Park and the proposed Stanford University Redwood City campus.