By Amanda Bishop, SF Business Times

- September 15, 2000 - Shorenstein Co. has named a new president, freeing up CEO and Chairman Doug Shorenstein to focus on the company's growing investment fund activities. Shorenstein promoted Glenn Shannon, the managing partner of the company's New York office to president. Shannon plans to move, along with his wife and three children, to San Francisco by January.
Shorenstein said Shannon, 44, was the best person to run the day-to-day operations of Shorenstein. "Glenn has done an excellent job running our New York office," Shorenstein said. "He's an extremely bright and thoughtful person who really understands the real estate business. He understands the investment market and managing properties."		Glenn Shannon promoted to Shorenstein President
Shannon, who has been with Shorenstein Co. since 1994, said he wasn't surprised by the promotion. "We've been talking about (me) doing the substance of the job for so long," he said. "It was more evolutionary than revolutionary." Shannon's first order of business will be managing Shorenstein's enormous growth. In eight years, Shorenstein has doubled its real estate holdings and most of its assets are now outside San Francisco. The company has grown to 600 employees. "The fact that much of growth outside of the Bay Area means we have to be very focused on how the company is organized and how we run each of our assets," Shorenstein said. "It's important to have one person primarily focused on organizational issues." Shannon has asked all managers at Shorenstein to sit down with their staff and think of ways to make the company more efficient. "The company has grown so much in the last 10 years, both in size and geographic scope and number of investors involved," Shannon said. "Like a lot of companies that go through that kind of growth, you spend a lot of time just getting things done. I want to take a fresh look at where we are at." Shannon emphasized that he would be fine tuning, not making large-scale changes. With Shannon as president, Shorenstein himself will spend more time on the company's investment fund business. Shorenstein began in 1992 to form a series of closed-end investment funds. It has almost completely invested its fifth fund--$300 million. The company will then begin raising its sixth fund, hoping to gather $500 million. Shorenstein seeks investors who will be with them for the long haul. Its 20 or so investors include wealthy individuals and college endowments such as the Yale University Endowment. Shorenstein also invest its own money. The funds are known as "value added" or "risk/reward", meaning investors make a current yield and will also profit on the back end when an asset is sold. In investing its funds, Shorenstein selects "Class A buildings that dominate the leasing side of the market and buildings we can add value to," Shorenstein said. Shorenstein said he is donating more of his time to the investment fund business because of the changing dynamics of the real estate market. "Investors are increasingly sophisticated and have advisers and a lot of choices," Shannon said. "You need to make sure the investment community understands what business you are in and the risk/reward profile, so you can be in a position to attract high-quality capital" ###