David S. Wolff

As chairman and president of Wolff Companies, Houston-based David Wolff is a pioneer in the development of master-planned business parks. 

He has developed thousands of acres in the Houston area, including the strip of the landscape now called The Energy Corridor in West Houston. He and partners acquired land early along the Katy Freeway, and their developments have turned it into a top Houston office destination. 

In an industry that’s still generally light on female executives in its upper ranks, Wolff’s operations stands out thanks to two daughters in key positions at the company – Carolyn Wolff Dorros is an executive vice president, working on strategic planning, marketing, and oversight of the company’s financial asset portfolios, and Elizabeth Wolff Rogers is a vice president, responsible for planning and development of large projects such as Gates Ranch, a 1,500-acre master-planned community. 

Wolf is a member of one of the more exclusive clubs on the American business landscape as a partner in the San Francisco Giants franchise of Major League Baseball. He’s also not afraid to challenge the clubbiness of the C-suite culture. In the midst of the pandemic he told a Bisnow panel that the commercial real estate industry is “going to have to retrofit Houston for a new reality, because I don’t think fossil fuels are going to be what they were.”

— Jess Hardin