Douglas W. Shorenstein (February 10, 1955 – November 24, 2015) was a San Francisco-based real estate developer[1][2] and former chairman of the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.[3]
Shorenstein was one of three children born, in San Francisco, California, on February 10, 1955,[4] to real estate developer Walter Shorenstein[5] and Phyllis Finley.[6] His father was born Jewish and his mother underwent conversion to Judaism.[7] He had two sisters: Broadway producer Carole Shorenstein Hays and CBS news producer and The Washington Post journalist Joan Shorenstein (who died of cancer in 1985). He graduated with a B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley and with a J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law.[8]
In 1980, he moved to New York City where he worked for three years in the real estate department of the law firm Shearman & Sterling LLP.[8] In 1983, he moved back to San Francisco and joined his father's real estate development company, Shorenstein Properties.[8] In 1995, he was appointed chairman and CEO.[9][10] Under his tutelage, he transitioned the company from a traditional local based real estate developer to a national real estate investment company[8] with more than 70 properties in 13 cities including Los Angeles, Portland, Oregon and Manhattan.[11] By 2006, Shorenstein Properties was the 20th largest owner of office buildings in the United States.[12]
In 1991, Shorenstein Properties started its first closed-end fund tasked with making real estate investments nationally and requiring a minimum $25 million investment and a 20-year commitment.[8] The fund had six partners, one of which was Shorenstein, and totaled $150 million.[13] After the death of his father, he bought out his sister's interest and shifted the company to a pure fund platform with each fund typically being composed of 10-15% of his own money.[8]
Shorenstein Properties, via twelve closed-end real estate funds, owns and manages 23 million square feet of office properties throughout the United States.[14]
In 2007, he was appointed to the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco; in 2010, he was elevated to deputy chairman; and in 2011, he was appointed chairman.[15]
Shorenstein served on the board the Environmental Defense Fund; the executive council of the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center; the executive committee of The Real Estate Roundtable; and Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government (named in honor of his late sister).[15] In 2011, Shorenstein was inducted into the Bay Area Council's Bay Area Business Hall of Fame which "recognizes the extraordinary achievements of individuals who have advanced San Francisco Bay Area-based businesses to positions of national and international prominence."[9] In 2013, he founded the Walter Shorenstein Media and Democracy Fellow at the Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center at Harvard University in honor of his father.[16]
Shorenstein was married to Lydia Preisler;[17] they had 3 children: a son, Brandon, and two daughters, Sandra and Danielle.[18] He was a practitioner of yoga and was a collector of Southeast Asian and Nepalese art with an emphasis on Khmer and Cambodian pieces.[13] He and his wife were members of the Congregation Emanu-El (San Francisco).[19] Shorenstein died due to cancer on November 24, 2015.[3][9]