FALL 2017 ing model that made many of his young hires “partners” in his success. Profit-sharing was not unheard of in those days, but it was not very common, says Harlan Crow. “Most people who went to work for a company back then earned a basic salary and maybe a bonus,” he says. “But my dad’s mentality was to share the profits, and he did share those quite liberally.” Gottesman agrees. “Trammell was one of the most generous partners anywhere. The company gave young people more responsibility and more opportunity than we probably deserved,” he says. He recalls one high-stakes deal early in his career — the Arboretum at Great Hills, an Austin mixed-use development with more than one million square feet of proposed office, retail, and hotel uses. A number of the senior partners thought the project was too risky and that we didn’t have the local expertise for it,” Gottesman says. After hearing a long list of reasons not to buy the land, Crow turned to Gottesman. “He said, ‘What do you want to do?’ And I said, ‘I want to do it.’ And he said, ‘So let's go do it. I'm going to build the nicest hotel Austin
has or ever will have.’ That was one of those moments when you just didn’t know if it was a dream or really happening,” Gottesman says. Myers compares the rush of making a good deal to flying. “Not only did we think we were jet pilots, taking risk and flying fast,” he says, laughing, “but we thought we were carrier jet pilots.” “Trammell Crow found these highly entrepreneurial people who absolutely had dominant personalities, loved the competition, loved the spirit of it all, and then they all wanted to go do it on their own,” Swope says. The company, which went public in 1997 and was sold to CBRE in 2006, still actively recruits at UT, and two employees of Trammel Crow Co. serve on the McCombs Real Estate Center’s advisory council. “If you think about the way people talk about pro sports, with coaching family trees and all the head coaches one team would spawn, there’s a certain equivalent here in the number of industry leaders who have been spawned out of the Trammell Crow Company,” Hartzell says. “And it turns out a lot of those people are Texas business graduates.”
Trammell Crow partners in 1988. Far left front row: Trammell Crow’s son Harlan Crow. Center front row: Don Williams, then CEO of Trammel Crow Co. Far right front row: Trammell Crow. Far right between second and third rows wearing red tie and glasses: Trammell Crow’s son Trammell S. Crow.
SOME OF THE STARS IN THE TRAMMELL CROW/ McCOMBS FAMILY TREE LUCY BILLINGSLEY, BBA ’75
Trammell Crow’s daughter Billingsley Company, Partner
MIKE BIRNBAUM, BBA ’65
Birnbaum Property Company, CEO AL BRANCH, MBA ’87
Moriah Real Estate Company, LLC, President TIM BYRNE, BBA ’70
Lincoln Property, President, Residential Division DON CHILDRESS, MBA ’7 1
Childress Klein Properties, Senior Managing Partner HARLAN CROW, BBA ’74
Trammell Crow’s son Crow Holdings, CEO
RICHARD CROW, MBA ’84
Myers & Crow Company, Ltd., Partner LYNN DAVIS, BBA ’83
Fidelis Realty Partners, Executive Vice President R. SCOTT DENNIS, BBA ’81
Invesco Real Estate, CEO/Managing Director ROBERT DUNCAN, BBA ’70; MBA ’7 1
Transwestern, Chairman
WILLIAM C. DUVALL
Lincoln Property Company, President, Commercial Property Operations SANDY GOTTESMAN, BBA ’73
Live Oak Gottesman, Founding Principal, Retired JIMMY GRISHAM, MBA ’83
Foundry Commercial, Principal, Development & Investment ALAN HASSENFLU, MBA ’87
Fidelis Realty Partners, President and CEO BARRY HENRY
Crow Holdings, Former Managing Director RICHARD HILL, BBA ’76
HPI, Partner and Co-Founder
BRUCE HOSFOD, MBA ’72
Hosford Ventures, Principal
JOHN HOLLAND, BBA ’81
Crow Holdings, Senior Managing Director JOHN KILTZ, MBA ’83
Stonelake Capital Partners, Co-Founder/Managing Partner MIKE LAFITTE, BBA ’83
CBRE, Global Group President
KENT LANCE, BBA ’84
HPI, Partner and Co-Founder
BRYCE MILLER, MBA ’84
Endeavor, Managing Principal
MARC MYERS, BBA ’69; MBA ’76
Myers & Crow Company, Ltd., President DAVID ROCHE, BBA ’79
Endeavor, Managing Principal
KIRK RUDY, BBA ’83; MBA ’86
Endeavor Real Estate Group, Managing Principal JEFF SWOPE, BBA ’72; MBA ’74
Champion Partners, Founder and Managing Partner ROBERT WATSON, MBA ’72
ProLogis, CEO European Properties/President and COO North America, Retired
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