Several Irvine Company retail and commercial executives have been promoted and two of the company’s best-known executives have departed as the company continues to reorganize its management ranks.
Rick Evans, president of the retail division of the Irvine Co.’s Investment Properties Group, has resigned and been replaced by Keith Eyrich, the senior vice president of development in the retail group. Evans said he plans to become a consultant, with the Irvine Co. as one of his clients.
Meanwhile, Bob Williams, who was president of the company’s Industrial Group, also has left the company. His industrial properties operations have been combined with the office properties unit under Bill Halford, who already ran the office side. Halford’s title has been upgraded to president of the Office Group.
Friends said Williams is expected to eventually move back to Northern California, where he grew up and where he is building a retirement home in Sonoma. Williams had left the Irvine Co. in early 1995 to work as a real estate consultant in Silicon Valley, then was wooed back to the company in late 1997.
Sources described the departures of Evans and Williams as cordial and said they included healthy severance packages. But the changes also signal a realignment of the company’s operations under new boss Clarence Barker, who was promoted to president of the Irvine Co.’s massive Investment Properties Group last month. He succeeded Richard Sim, the longtime chief who remains as chairman of the group and serves on the new operations management committee with company owner and Chairman Donald Bren and Chief Financial Officer Michael McKee.
Two other managers also have been promoted:
Ron Keith has been promoted to Investment Properties Group’s executive vice president for commercial property development, heading up construction and development for the company’s office and industrial properties. Keith has held a number of executive positions with the company.
David Patty becomes the Investment Properties Group’s executive vice president for finance and administration. Patty previously headed finance and administration for the company’s apartment communities, but will now oversee all finance for the Irvine Co.’s retail, office, hospitality and recreation properties and apartment communities.
Eyrich, Halford, Keith and Patty all will report to Barker. The promoted executives are all in their 40s, some 10 years younger than Evans and Williams.
Eyrich is heading up the landowner’s three regional malls and 33 neighborhood shopping centers, including Fashion Island, The Market Place Tustin/Irvine and Irvine Spectrum Center.
The promotion for Eyrich caps a 15-year career at the Irvine Co. Previously, Eyrich practiced law at the offices of Cox Castle & Nicholson LLP, where he handled shopping center owners, managers, developers and other clients. Where Evans was seen as a master of marketing and retail, Eyrich’s expertise is in the construction aspects of retails projects.
Halford’s background is as a leasing specialist. He was hired by Barker in 1994 from PM Realty Group, where he was vice president of leasing and marketing. Halford now oversees a portfolio of 22 million square feet of office and industrial space in Orange County, San Diego County, Los Angeles and Silicon Valley. n
