Ron Terwilliger, who estimates that he has built nearly 250,000 units
of housing during his 30-year-plus career, will step down as chairman
of Dallas-based Trammell Crow Residential (TCR), effective Dec. 31,
2009.
During his 25 years at the helm of the firm, Terwilliger estimates that
TCR developed more apartments than any other firm in the country. For
instance, in 2009, 2008, and 2007, TCR ranked No. 1 on Multifamily Executive's Top 50 list of builders, starting 8,194, 10,936, and 8,037 units respectively those years.
As TCR grew under Terwilliger, it not only developed hundreds of
thousands of apartments. It also grew leaders. That’s not surprising,
given Terwilliger’s educational and career background. He graduated
from the Naval Academy in 1963, spent five years as an officer, and
graduated from Harvard Business School in 1970. He started in the
business world at Sea Pines in Hilton Head, S.C., in 1970 and then
moved to Dallas-based Henry C. Beck Co. in 1975. He made the move to
Trammell Crow in 1978 and took over as CEO of TCR in 1983.
“Over the last decade, my interest has been shifting from a very
dedicated focus on TCR and rental apartments to nonprofits and trying
to help those that are less fortunate than I have been,” he says.
Terwilliger
donated $5 million to the Urban Land Institute to establish the J.
Ronald Terwilliger Center for Workforce Housing; $100 million to
Habitat for Humanity International; and $5 million to Enterprise
Community Partners to generate more than $130 million worth of
affordable housing throughout the country. In his retirement,
Terwilliger will focus on being chair of the Terwilliger Center at ULI,
Global Campaign Chairman at Habitat, an executive committee chairman at
Enterprise, and a board member of The "I Have A Dream" Foundation.
“He
has been a towering figure with Habitat for Humanity and the leadership
of ULI,” says Doug Bibby, president of the National Multi Housing
Council in Washington, D.C. “He’s been slowly transitioning his way
into these other very important pursuits and this is the culmination of
that.”
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