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Wednesday, Apr 8, 2026

Irvine Co. Office Unit Names Chairman, Hires Hines Exec

Newport Beach-based Irvine Company has promoted two of its highest-ranking office property executives, Val Wheeler and Steve Case, and also has hired away the local head of operations for fellow developer Hines Interests LP.

Wheeler, president of the Irvine Co.’s office properties division, has assumed the newly created position of division chairman, the company announced Monday.

He still reports to Richard Gilchrist, president of Irvine Co.’s investment properties group. Wheeler joined Irvine Co. in 2003 and had been in his most recent role since 2007.

Doug Holte, a longtime executive with Houston-based Hines Interests who ran the company’s OC operations in Irvine, will succeed Wheeler as president.

Holte was one of four regional partners at Hines responsible for development projects, new investments and asset management in the Western U.S. During his two-decade career with Hines, he was responsible for more than $3 billion of office and life science property developments and investments.

In another personnel move, Irvine Co. promoted Steve Case to executive vice president of the office properties division. He had been a senior vice president for leasing.

In his new role, Case will continue to lead the leasing team, as well as expand his involvement in operations and other division activities, the company said.

Irvine Co. is OC’s dominant office landlord. It owns 475 office buildings in OC, San Diego and Los Angeles counties, and in Silicon Valley.

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Mark Mueller
Mark Mueller
Mark is the former Editor-in-Chief and current Community Editor of the Orange County Business Journal, one of the premier regional business newspapers in the country. He’s the fifth person to hold the editor’s position in the paper’s long history. He oversees a staff of about 15 people. The OCBJ is considered a must-read for area business executives. The print edition of the paper is the primary source of local news for most of the Business Journal’s subscribers, which includes most of OC’s major corporate and community players. Mark’s been with the paper since 2005, and long served as the real estate reporter for the paper, breaking hundreds of commercial and residential real estate stories. He took on the editor’s position in 2018.

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