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Bill Mack, W’61

Co-Founder and Chairman
Mack Real Estate Group

Mr. Mack is the Chairman of the Mack Real Estate Group, a real estate investment platform founded in 2013 by Mr. Mack and his sons Richard and Stephen. Mack Real Estate Group is devoted to managing institutional, high net worth and Mack family capital by making debt and equity investments in real estate and real estate-related securities through several business lines. MREG currently specializes in domestic and international real estate investment, development and financing opportunities with a view toward long-term performance and hands on management. The firm also has a commonly controlled property and construction management affiliate focused on commercial assets.

Prior to launching the Mack Real Estate Group in August 2013, Mr. Mack was the Founder and Chairman of AREA Property Partners (formerly Apollo Real Estate Advisors). The AREA Funds collectively invested in more than $60 billion of diversified real estate ventures in 25 countries. Investments included office and retail facilities, hotels, multi-family residential housing, mortgage securities, housing companies, land investments, and public and private real estate operating companies. In May 2013, AREA Property Partners signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by Areas Management LLC, a Los-Angeles based investment firm. The deal was described by Commercial Property Executive (5/13/13) as “one of the industry’s biggest transactions of 2013.”

Mr. Mack also serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Mack-Cali Realty Corporation, a publicly traded REIT that owns and operates a portfolio of Class A office office/flex buildings and multi-family residential properties located in the northeast United States. He is the Principal and CEO of the Mack Organization, a national owner, investor, and developer of warehouse and retail facilities.

Mr. Mack is the Chairman of the Board of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. He is Vice Chair of the Northwell Health, where he serves on the Executive Committee; he also serves as a Trustee and Member of the Executive Committee of Lenox Hill Hospital.

Mr. Mack is a Director of Florida Community Bank and a Director of Hudson’s Bay Company. He is a past Director of Retail Opportunity Investments Corporation, Wyndham International, Inc., the Bear Stearns Companies, Inc., Vail Resorts, Inc., the Empire State Development Corporation, and a past member of the Regional Advisory Board of JP Morgan Chase. Mr. Mack is a past Chairman of the Long Island Power Authority, the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center Development Corporation of New York, and the New York Convention Center Operating Corporations.

Mr. Mack attended Brooklyn Technical High School, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and the School of Business of New York University.

University Affiliations:

  • Recipient, 2016 Alumni Award of Merit
  • Emeritus Member, University Board of Trustees (since 2010)
  • Emeritus Member, Trustees Development Committee (Member since 1997)
  • Emeritus Member, Trustees Facilities and Planning Committees (since 2010; Chair, 1999 – 2010)
  • Emeritus Member, Trustees Budget & Finance Committee
  • Former University Term Trustee (1997-2007) and University Charter Trustee (2007-2010); Vice Chair, Board of Trustees, 2006-2010
  • Former Member, Executive Committee of the Health System

Wharton Affiliations of Note:

  • Emeritus, Wharton Board of Overseers (Member since 1998; Vice Chair, 2009 – 2013; Chair, 2013-2017)
  • Member, Zell/Lurie Real Estate Center Advisory Board (since 1994; Vice Chair, 1999-2002)
  • Chair and Convener, Wharton Executive Conference Center Real Estate Task Force
  • Former Member, Development Committee (2005 – 2010)
  • Former Member and Former Chair, Undergraduate Executive Board (1989 – 1998)
  • Recipient, Joseph Wharton Award for Lifetime Achievement, Joseph Wharton Awards Dinner (2008)
  • Established the William and Phyllis Mack Center for Technological Innovation in 2001; the Mack Center is an umbrella organization for all of Wharton’s technology management initiatives. In 2013, the Macks permanently endowed the Mack Institute for Innovation Management.
  • Wharton’s Quadrangle, including the “William L. Mack Plaza,” was dedicated in 1992.
  • As chairman of Penn’s Facilities and Campus Planning Committee, Mr. Mack championed the addition of Wharton’s state-of-the-art Jon M. Huntsman Hall, as well as new academic, residential, and retail spaces that have transformed campus in recent years.