John S. Long

John S. Long '69, President and CEO, Highridge Partners, Inc.

John S. Long is widely acknowledged as one of the industry leaders in real estate investment today. He founded Highridge Partners (www.highridgepartners.com) in 1978 on a platform of fundamental principles that have formed the company's investment approach and made Mr. Long's views a bellwether for the real estate industry. 

Mr. Long's strategies have enabled Highridge to maneuver through major real estate cycles and to record an enviable performance - building an investment portfolio of more than $6 billion with average annual returns of over 20 percent over nearly three decades. In 2005, Highridge established Golden Boy Partners (www.goldenboypartners.com) to address the unique real estate challenges and opportunities of the urban Latino communities.

Working in an industry that is resistant to change, Mr. Long has sought to encourage the intellectual power of academics to pursue research and industry initiatives that would lead to redefining the role of real estate in the 21st century.   To further this effort, in 2000 Mr. Long established the Ziman Center for Real Estate at UCLA and serves as its Founding Chairman. 

Mr. Long again combined intellectual pursuits with business interests by launching in 2005 an initiative to create a U.S.-China Business and Policy Institute. This institute will be anchored by a bi-lateral relationship between the University of California and the leading research universities
in China to study, teach, and provide relevant industry tools for bridging the Sino-American business gap.

Mr. Long received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from UCLA and a Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School in 1971. He started his career as a senior executive with the international homebuilder KB Home. He also serves on the Board of Governors at UCLA, the Board of Visitors at UCLA Anderson School of Management and the Los Angeles
Steering Committee of the Urban Land Institute.