What You Don't Know About 6 CEOs
Some of the biggest national and international firms are based in Texas. Here's what you don't know about the CEOs of PMRG, Camden, Crescent, Stream and Transwestern.
PMRG CEO Rick Kirk
How Long You’ve Been at the Helm: 20 years
PMRG’s 2016 Goals: Nationwide, it’s looking for value-add acquisition opportunities and is pushing to expand its management and leasing footprint.
Ongoing Big Deals: A couple of big ones in Houston: Completing leasing of 3737 Buffalo Speedway and its residential tower 2929 Weslayan, and finishing renovations at its 2900 Weslayan office project.
Career Highlight: Returning to Houston from Dallas to lead PMRG.
Alma Mater: University of Texas
First Job: Working for Cadillac Fairview in the Houston Center.
Favorite Food: A good steak
Last Vacation: Tanzania, Africa, this summer
Kids: daughters, Whitney (30) and Taylor (24); son, Brice (27)
Best Present Ever: Valentine’s Day arrival of Whitney
Dessert You Can’t Resist: None. I am a rock.
Go-To Happy Hour Order: Shiner Bock
Secret Talent: Ability to recall totally useless information about the ‘60s/’70s Dallas Cowboys and Houston Astros.
Camden CEO Ric Campo
How Long You’ve Been at the Helm: Since inception of Camden 30-plus years ago (22 years since official IPO). Now, Camden owns/operates 169 properties containing nearly 59,000 apartments in 16 US markets.
Recent Big Deals: Projects under construction include Camden Shady Grove in Rockville, MD; Camden Lincoln Station in Denver; The Camden in Los Angeles; Camden McGowen Station in Houston; and Camden Gallery in Charlotte. Last quarter, it snagged development parcels in Phoenix and Los Angeles for future development of 1,274 apartments.
Career Highlight: Making the Fortune “100 Best Companies to Work For” in America list for the past eight years, ranking No. 10 this time. (Camden’s super cool HQ might have something to do with it.)
What’s In a Name: “Camden” is Cam for Campo and Den for Camden president Keith Oden. They bought their first apartment building together in ’87.
Alma Mater: Oregon State
First Job: Basically what I am doing now! I bought a small-town Oregon pool hall at 17 years old with money I earned working odd jobs in high school. I ended up selling it for a $5k profit, which I put towards my bachelor’s degree.
Kids: Three, all grown
Secret Talent: Getting the Super Bowl to Houston. I’m chairman of Houston First, including leading the bid to bring the big game here in 2017, and now I’m chairing the Houston Super Bowl Host Committee.
Crescent Real Estate Equities chairman & CEO John Goff
How Long You’ve Been at the Helm: Since the early 1990s, when founded with the late Richard Rainwater.
Crescent's 2016 Goals: Looking for more long-term hold development sites.
Latest Big Deals: 20-story McKinney & Olive in Uptown Dallas and the 29-story 6 Houston Center in the Houston CBD.
Other Business Ventures: Chairman and CEO of Crescent Real Estate Holdings, managing principal of Goff Capital Partners and helps with The Goff Family Foundation.
Bullish On: Energy and oil. Just this week, he bought 6.1 million shares (the equivalent of 7.9%) of Resolute Energy Corp, according to SEC documents. Resolute acquires, develops and produces domestic oil and gas in Wyoming and Utah.
Alma Mater: The University of Texas
Favorite Food: Mediterranean
On the Homefront: John and his wife, Cami, put one of their homes (on Eagle Mountain Lake, just outside of Fort Worth) on the auction block. But, it looks to have been sold with a pre-emptive bid. No word, for sure.
Family: Wife, Cami, and five children
Secret Talent: John and his wife are film patrons. The latest: Unbranded (available on iTunes)
Stream Realty CEOs Lee Belland and Mike McVean
How Long You’ve Been at the Helm: We founded Stream in 1996. Now it has 600 employees and offices in Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, Dallas, Denver, Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, Southern California, and Washington, DC.
Stream’s 2016 Goals: The same as always, identify and attract great talent and invest/develop cyclically and opportunistically.
Recent Big Deals: Repped RealPage in its 400k SF lease, awarded leasing and development services on the first development in Fort Worth since ’08 (640 Taylor), sold the mixed-use city block at 6th and Congress in Austin, awarded 500k SF build-to-suit for Farmer Brothers’ new HQ in Texas, acquired a 186k SF (18-story) office building in Denver and AT&T Plaza in Charlotte (350k SF), added 16 buildings totaling 939k SF to the 2.2M SF it manages for Greenfield Properties.
Career Highlight:
Mike—working side by side with Lee for almost 20 years.
Lee—I’d better say I agree with Mike’s statement.
Alma Mater:
Mike—Texas Tech for bachelor’s, Penn State for MBA.
Lee—Oberlin College for bachelor’s, Harvard for MBA.
First Job:
Mike—McDonald's. I worked there for 10 years.
Lee—I installed underground sprinkler systems at residential properties and several golf courses. This trade comes in handy when I have issues with my yard.
Favorite Food:
Mike—Mexican or ChiFri. Very tough call.
Lee—Mexican, of course. At least three times a week!
Last Vacation:
Mike—Telluride, CO.
Lee—Rossland, British Columbia.
Kids:
Mike—two boys, both currently Delts at Texas Tech…just like me.
Lee— My son, Lee III, is a sophomore at Lehigh University, and Alex, my daughter, is a senior at Ursuline Academy of Dallas.
Best Present Ever:
Mike—the Lifecase for my iPhone.
Lee—Something my daughter gave me. It doesn’t matter what it was; it was that she thought to buy a gift for me on her own.
Dessert You Can’t Resist:
Mike—I can resist them all; I’m not a big sweet guy.
Lee—Buttermilk Pie…a Southern treasure.
Go-to Happy Hour Order:
Mike—Shiner Draft
Lee—Stella
Secret Talent:
Mike—Identifying talented business people.
Lee—It’s a secret.
Transwestern president of the Americas Chip Clarke
How Long You’ve Been at the Helm: Been at Transwestern 24 years, but led the Americas for 2.5.
Transwestern’s 2016 Goals: Bulk up its bio and life sciences practice (already a force to be reckoned with in Boston) and its healthcare real estate practice (particularly strong in Houston). It’s especially focused on the Northeast (watch out, Philly and New York), and on bringing life sciences to Houston. Other key markets for overall growth next year are San Francisco, San Diego, Phoenix and Seattle.
Alma Mater: SMU
First Job: Paper boy for the Richardson Daily News and bag boy at Winn-Dixie
Favorite Food: Charred rare filet from Sly's Restaurant in Carpinteria with brandy peppercorn sauce.
Last Vacation: Carpinteria, CA. The best.
Kids: Ralston (26), Hannah (24), Kate (22), Weston (13)
Best Present Ever: My kids.
Dessert You Can’t Resist: Bananas Foster
Go-to Happy Hour Order: Don Julio 1942 with a lime
Secret Talent: Play guitar and a mean ukelele. Pretty darn good on any movie trivia.
