Longtime ULI Member and ULI Governor Roy W. Sheargold Passes Away

ULI Governor and Honorary Member Roy W. Sheargold, 88, of Sydney, NSW, Australia, passed away on Wednesday, July 6, 2011. Sheargold, chairman of the Sheargold Group, a diversified property investment and development organization based in Brookvale, Sydney, was an active ULI member for over 40 years.

His death occurred as he was returning to Sydney following a month of convalescence in Glasgow, Scotland, where he had suffered a mild heart attack in early June.

Sheargold attended ULI’s 2010 Fall Meeting in Washington, D.C., where he introduced his beloved grandson Michael as representing the next generation of the Sheargold family to be involved in the Institute. Both attended the ULI Governors Retreat at St. Michaels, Md., following the fall meeting.

Recently, Sheargold was asked to name his favorite ULI memories. His reply: Hosting ULI groups visiting Australia, and being selected as a ULI Trustee and Honorary Member ranked highest. Second was contributing to ULI’s global expansion and its efforts to “look beyond the shores of North America.”

According to ULI Foundation President Richard Rosan, Sheargold kept in contact with many at ULI while convalescing in Scotland. “He called these communiqués ‘Epistles from Glasgow.’ In fact, we had just received his last missive hours before his passing,” Rosan recalled. “Roy touched the lives of many people with his smile, his generosity, and his trademark gifting of Koala bears that he fondly distributed to ULI staff and members at the meetings. Our thoughts and sympathies are with Michael and the rest of the Sheargold family.”

Phillip R. Hughes Establishes Hughes ULI Student Fellowship Award at Clemson University

Longtime ULI Full Member Phillip R. Hughes and his wife, Lauren Hughes, have donated $25,000 to Clemson University in Clemson, S.C., to establish the Hughes ULI Student Fellowship Award. The fellowship program will cover ULI membership fees for all students in the university’s graduate real estate development program.

The couple also established a second fund, the Hughes Distinguished Student Award, which will recognize two outstanding graduates with $500 cash awards annually. Recipients of the 2011 Hughes Distinguished Student Award are Mack H. Cross of Winston-Salem, N.C., and C. Holly Douglas of Greenville, S.C.

Hughes is president of Hughes Investments Inc., based in Greenville, S.C.; he also teaches real estate development strategic planning at Clemson.

In a statement issued by Clemson University, Hughes said, “It’s fun to contribute to the real estate-development students in a way that will help them make the kinds of professional connections that may not only land them jobs later, but also establish business relationships that can last their entire careers. It’s also a privilege to be able to reward Holly and Mack for their terrific achievements. They’re not only great students, but they each exemplify the kind of creative thinking and problem solving that will serve them well throughout their lives.”

Thomas Schurch, chairman of the planning and landscape architecture department, which houses Clemson’s real estate development program, said, “This gift allows Clemson to continue to provide engaging experiences for our real estate graduate students that will help them build a network within the professional real estate community while they are completing their coursework at Clemson.”

Career News and Notes

Cushman & Wakefield of Oregon, Inc. has hired ULI full member Robert (Skip) Rotticci as a broker specializing in land and investments. Rotticci’s specific focus will be integrating valuation and advisory services with project management, asset services, and brokerage to create solutions for distressed land and development opportunities in the Pacific Northwest. Rotticci is actively involved with ULI's leadership and was instrumental in forming the ULI Oregon/Southwest Washington District Council. He recently formed ULI’s Transit Oriented Development council and served as its chair from 2008 through 2010.

AvalonBay Communities Inc. President Timothy Naughton will succeed Bryce Blair as chief executive officer at the end of 2011. Prior to being named president, Naughton, a ULI full member, served as chief operating officer for the company, where he was responsible for the performance and coordination of development, construction, acquisitions, dispositions, and property operations. He is a member of ULI’s Multifamily Council, the Real Estate Round Table, and the National Multi-Housing Council, where he serves on the Executive Committee. Blair, a ULI full member and trustee, recently joined the board of directors for the PulteGroup. He has been with AvalonBay since 1993. Blair chairs the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts, where he is a member of the executive committee and board of governors; and he is a past chair of ULI’s Multifamily Council.

ULI Full Member Kathleen Carey has been named chief compliance officer of GE Capital Real Estate. In her new role, she will oversee compliance-related matters, and she will craft, execute and preserve the international compliance policy for the unit. Carey was most recently the chief operating officer for GE Capital Real Estate’s Investment Management team and head of the unit’s global Six Sigma group. Carey is a member of the ULI Larson Leadership Initiative’s advisory board, and she heads the steering committee of the Institute’s Women’s Leadership Initiative.