Bill Witte

Chairman emeritus, Related California 

The biggest headline Bill Witte has made lately as the longtime leader of  Related California came when he announced plans to step away from the CEO’s role and take on the mantle of chairman emeritus. That ended a 36-year run as day-to-day boat of the firm he cofounded with Steve Ross (see related entry), which grew into one of the most consequential developers in the state, with projects ranging from affordable residential to Class A office, with concentrations in both Southern California and the Bay Area.  

A testament to Witte’s long tenure is the fact that two people were tapped to fill his shoes:  Gino Canori, now president and chief executive of Related California’s market-rate and mixed-income development group, and Ann Silverberg, who’s been named president and CEO of the company’s entire affordable division (see related entries). 

Witte’s immediate legacy will keep the firm especially busy, with a $750 million hotel-and-office tower planned in San Francisco’s Jackson Square and a $3 billion mixed-used master-plan called Related Bristol underway in Orange County. Witte is famously non-controversial for a developer who’s worked to such effect throughout California, and he showed why during an interview in the Los Angeles Times to mark the end of his run as CEO, telling the publication that the city’s downtown isn’t as bad as most think even as he knocked the public sector for a poor performance on getting workers back to offices in the Civic Center.