DOUGLAS SHORENSTEIN

SHORENSTEIN--Douglas W.

(February 10, 1955-November 24, 2015) Douglas W. (Doug) Shorenstein, 60, of San Francisco, CA passed away November 24, 2015, at home surrounded by his loving family. He was Chairman and CEO of Shorenstein Properties, a devoted husband and father, a giant in the real estate industry, a generous philanthropist and a committed civic leader. Doug's family was his greatest joy. He delighted in attending his children's sporting events and traveling with his family throughout the world. He was an expert skier, a voracious reader, an avid practitioner of vinyasa yoga and a passionate art collector, especially of Southeast Asian and Nepalese art. Friends remember Doug as a generous and valued mentor and confidante, and particularly enjoyed gathering with him for an evening of conversation over a good meal and great bottle of wine. Doug began his career as an attorney at Shearman & Sterling in New York City, and returned to San Francisco in 1983 to join the family business founded by his father, Walter. Under his leadership, the company grew into one of the largest and most respected private real estate firms in the United States, investing in almost 60 million square feet of high-quality office buildings, including trophy properties like Park Avenue Tower in New York, Hamilton Square in Washington, D.C. and The John Hancock Tower in Chicago. More recently, he had great success transforming older buildings into high quality creative spaces for modern tenants, including the Starrett Lehigh Building in New York, Market Square in San Francisco, River North Point in Chicago and The Reserve in Los Angeles. With his father, Doug led the successful effort in 1992-1993 to form an investor group to keep the San Francisco Giants in San Francisco. In 2007, he was elected to the Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, and served as its Chairman in 2011 and 2012, providing, in the words of Bank President and CEO John Williams, "outstanding leadership." In 2011, he was inducted into the Bay Area Council's Business Hall of Fame. Marc Benioff, founder and chairman of Salesforce.com, called Doug "one of the greatest leaders of San Francisco." Doug was an exemplary civic leader and philanthropist, supporting and serving on the boards of local groups such as UCSF Medical Center, the United Way of San Francisco and the Committee on Jobs, as well as prominent national industry groups and institutions, including The Real Estate Roundtable, Environmental Defense Fund, Yale School of Management, Vanderbilt University, and The Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Doug is survived by his wife, Lydia, three children, Brandon, Sandra and Danielle, and a sister, Carole Shorenstein Hays.