MANAGEMENT TEAM
Donald R. Stephens – Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Stephens earned his BS degree at the University of Southern California and his Juris Doctor at Hastings School of Law. He started D. R. Stephens & Company in 1973 as a real estate investment company and has continued in the business since.
In 1978, Stephens, Kenneth Sieble, Charles Schwab, Roger Walther, Richard Dinner, Donna Casey and David Holbrooke, M.D., started the Bank of San Francisco with $3 Million in capital. Mr. Stephens ran the Bank as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, building the Bank to $420 Million in assets by 1990. With the real estate recession of 1990-92, the Bank was sold to an Indonesian investor, Putra Massagung, and Mr. Stephens stayed on for six months as Chairman. In 1991 Mr. Stephens returned to D. R. Stephens & Company on a full-time basis and resumed his activities in the investment business. He was solely responsible for the sourcing, structuring, financing and acquisition of properties acquired prior to 1999, and jointly with Lane Stephens for the structuring and financing of properties acquired after 1999.
Mr. Stephens is a Director of the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics, University of California, Berkeley, and a Trustee of the Charles Schwab Family of Funds (a $200 Billion mutual fund complex). He is a former Director of: St. Francis Hospital, San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, and the California Chamber of Commerce. He served on the San Francisco Airport Commission from 1986 to 1990.
Lane B. Stephens – President. Mr. Stephens graduated from the University of California at Berkeley.
He trained at Colliers International in the industrial real estate division, initially as an assistant
for a leading industrial agent and later as a broker. While at Colliers, in April of
1999, Donald and Lane Stephens formed Stephens & Stephens, LLC, to acquire industrial
properties in the Bay Area.
In 1999-2000, Stephens & Stephens, LLC, purchased four investment properties in the East Bay and San Francisco. In February 2001, Mr. Stephens came into D. R. Stephens & Company as a full-time principal. At that time, the Firm began acquiring investment properties in conjunction with outside capital partners, many of whom had been partners in D. R. Stephens & Company sponsored investment companies in the 1980s and 1990s.
Since 2001, Mr. Stephens has been responsible for the sourcing of investment properties and jointly responsible for negotiating terms of acquisition and financing for properties acquired. He has primary responsibility for management of portfolio properties. Mr. Stephens is a licensed real estate broker, a member of the Urban Land Institute (ULI), and a former member of the Board of Directors of the San Francisco Chapter of the National Association of Industrial and Office Properties (NAIOP).
Terry Dela Cruz – Executive Vice President – Acquisitions and Finance and Treasurer of D. R. Stephens & Company. Ms. Dela Cruz graduated from the University of California at Irvine, with a BA in Economics. She began her career as a staff accountant at the Irvine, California, CPA firm Kho & Patel, after which she joined Babe, Inc. (dba Bebe) in their Brisbane, California, corporate offices as a general ledger accountant.
Ms. Dela Cruz has been associated with D. R. Stephens & Company for the past thirteen years. She has trained and is licensed in the practice of real estate brokerage and brings broad experience in the valuation, acquisition and disposition of more than $1 Billion in industrial and R&D real estate assets. In addition, Ms. Dela Cruz has extensive experience managing the reporting requirements of conduit lenders, mortgage bankers, CPA firms, private investors and joint venture members. She is currently responsible for all of the Firm's acquisitions, dispositions and financing.
Nicholas Kapranos – Vice President, Senior Analyst and Construction Manager. Mr. Kapranos graduated from the University of California at Santa Barbara with a BA in Business Economics. He began his career in 2003 at Portland-Pacific, LLC, a private real estate investment firm with offices in Santa Barbara and San Francisco. At Portland-Pacific Mr. Kapranos first served as a Financial Analyst and was promoted to Assistant Vice President in 2006. During his tenure at Portland-Pacific, Mr. Kapranos focused on acquisitions and dispositions and was involved in a variety of development projects, most notably a $30 Million high-rise office-to-residential condo conversion.
Mr. Kapranos joined D. R. Stephens & Company in early 2007, where he works closely with Donald Stephens and Lane Stephens to analyze acquisition opportunities. In addition, he oversees construction and the redevelopment projects on existing properties. Mr. Kapranos is licensed in California as both a real estate broker and a general contractor.
Nicholas Stephens – Vice President, Asset Management. Mr. Stephens graduated from Colorado College in 2002 with a BA in Comparative Literature. During semester breaks throughout college, Mr. Stephens held several jobs in the Napa Valley wine and spirits industry, working in sales for Wilson Daniels Ltd., and then on the production side for Joseph Phelps Winery. After graduation he spent a year in South America where he volunteered at Almeria Solidaria teaching sustainable farming techniques and community development in the mountains outside of Cusco, Peru.
Mr. Stephens began his real estate career in June 2005 at Cornish & Carey Commercial in their San Mateo office. He worked on a three-man team whose focus ranged from Net Leased Investment transactions throughout the United States to representing Bay Area landlords and tenants in their leasing and sales needs.
Mr. Stephens joined D. R. Stephens & Company in early 2008, where he now oversees the asset and property management team and works closely with other members of management in dealing with issues ranging from lease negotiation to long-term asset management.